APOD: 2026 November 6 – A Farewell to Swift
NASA ·
APOD Science APOD APOD: 2026 November 6 – A… Today’s APOD Archive Submissions Index Search Calendar RSS Education About Discuss APOD Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. A Farewell […]
APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Explanation: It is time to say goodbye to NASA ‘s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory . After nearly 22 years of service, the satellite re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on November 4 at 7:39 EST over the North Sumatra region of Indonesia . The featured image is a mosaic created in 2018 using the first one million images captured by the satellite’s Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope . Swift had a combination of instruments, including an X-ray telescope and a gamma-ray telescope , that worked together to enable humanity to study, in unprecedented detail, the fastest and most energetic explosions in the universe. The most recent solar maximum accelerated the decay of the satellite’s orbit. An innovative mission to rescue Swift by boosting its orbit was not successful . Swift burned on reentry like a shooting star, but the impressive data acquired by the telescope over its mission will continue to bring light to the mysteries of the cosmos for years to come. May it keep inspiring new missions to boldly go into space, explore new data and seek out new science.
Tomorrow’s picture: what’s next?
Yesterday’s Image APOD: 2026 November 5 – Enceladus in Silhouette