Swift's 500 Gamma-ray Bursts

  • Released Monday, April 19th, 2010
  • Updated Thursday, November 2nd, 2023 at 9:42AM
  • ID: 10590

On April 13, 2010, NASA's Swift Gamma-ray Burst Explorer satellite discovered its 500th burst. Swift's main job is to quickly localize each gamma-ray burst (GRB), report its position so that others can immediately conduct follow-up observations, and then study the burst using its X-ray and Ultraviolet/Optical telescopes. The plots and videos below illustrate Swift's first 500 GRBs.

For more on the story, see the feature "NASA's Swift Catches 500th Gamma-ray Burst".

This page has been updated with a new version of this animation highlighting Swift's detection of the most distant gamma-ray burst ever seen—13.14 billion light years.

Video showing all 500 bursts detected by Swift. Some notable bursts are identified.

(music only, no narration)

Among the first 500 gamma-ray bursts detected by Swift is GRB 090429B, currently the farthest explosion ever detected and a candidate for the most distant object in the universe.

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Swift

For complete transcript, click here.

Swift video with Italian text.

This all-sky map shows the locations of Swift's 500 gamma-ray bursts, color coded by the year in which they occurred. In the background, an infrared image shows the location of our galaxy and its largest satellites. Credit: NASA/Swift/Francis Reddy

This all-sky map shows the locations of Swift's 500 gamma-ray bursts, color coded by the year in which they occurred. In the background, an infrared image shows the location of our galaxy and its largest satellites.

Credit: NASA/Swift/Francis Reddy

All-sky plot without burst highlight labels or markers.Credit:NASA/Swift/Francis Reddy

All-sky plot without burst highlight labels or markers.

Credit:NASA/Swift/Francis Reddy

This all-sky view of the infrared sky from the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) serves as the background for the Swift 500 GRB map and animation. http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/gallery/showcase/allsky/index.html. The plane of our galaxy, the Milky Way, runs horizontally through the middle of the map. Each color represents the local density of stars seen in each of the survey's three infrared bands. Nearly 100 million stars appear in the image.Credit: 2MASS/J. Carpenter, M. Skrutskie, R. Hurt

This all-sky view of the infrared sky from the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) serves as the background for the Swift 500 GRB map and animation. http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/gallery/showcase/allsky/index.html.

The plane of our galaxy, the Milky Way, runs horizontally through the middle of the map. Each color represents the local density of stars seen in each of the survey's three infrared bands. Nearly 100 million stars appear in the image.

Credit: 2MASS/J. Carpenter, M. Skrutskie, R. Hurt

For More Information

See the following sources:

Credits

Please give credit for this page to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. However, each image should be credited as indicated above.

Missions

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Series

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Tapes

This visualization originally appeared on the following tapes:
  • Swift 500th GRB and Farthest GRB (ID: 2011073)
    Tuesday, June 14, 2011 at 4:00AM
    Produced by - Robert Crippen

Datasets used in this visualization

Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.