Bad Astronomy

Happy Birthday Swift!

Just an interlude:

On November 20, 2004, NASA launched the Swift gamma-ray burst mission into orbit. That was yesterday!

I can’t believe I forgot. I’ve been working on the education and public outreach for Swift for years! I actually remembered last night, but was already committed to posting that entry about the two supernovae this morning… but at least Swift figures in that post!

Swift has been performing beautifully, and continues to operate well (in fact, it caught a pretty cool burst this morning; click on GRB 061121A). Swift has been okayed by NASA for two more years, which is very cool.

If you want to read more, try this entry about Swift, or when I wrote about it for the first anniversary of Swift’s launch.

Happy birthday, Swift.