{ "count": 33, "next": null, "previous": null, "results": [ { "id": 12740, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12740/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2017-10-16T10:00:00-04:00", "title": "Doomed Neutron Stars Create Blast of Light and Gravitational Waves", "description": "This animation captures phenomena observed over the course of nine days following the neutron star merger known as GW170817, detected on Aug. 17, 2017. They include gravitational waves (pale arcs), a near-light-speed jet that produced gamma rays (magenta), expanding debris from a kilonova that produced ultraviolet (violet), optical and infrared (blue-white to red) emission, and, once the jet directed toward us expanded into our view from Earth, X-rays (blue). Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/CI LabMusic: \"Exploding Skies\" from Killer TracksWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. || Neutron_Star_Merger_Still_2_new_1080.png (1920x1080) [2.5 MB] || Neutron_Star_Merger_Still_2_new_1080.jpg (1920x1080) [167.3 KB] || Neutron_Star_Merger_Still_2_new_print.jpg (1024x576) [50.4 KB] || Neutron_Star_Merger_Still_2_new.png (3840x2160) [7.7 MB] || Neutron_Star_Merger_Still_2_new.jpg (3840x2160) [1.0 MB] || Neutron_Star_Merger_Still_2_new_thm.png (80x40) [4.4 KB] || Neutron_Star_Merger_Still_2_new_searchweb.png (320x180) [51.4 KB] || 12740_NS_Merger_Update_1080.m4v (1920x1080) [50.3 MB] || 12740_NS_Merger_Update_H264_1080.mp4 (1920x1080) [96.9 MB] || 12740_NS_Merger_Update_1080p.mov (1920x1080) [101.9 MB] || NS_Merger_SRT_Captions.en_US.srt [417 bytes] || NS_Merger_SRT_Captions.en_US.vtt [399 bytes] || 12740_NS_Merger_4k_Update.webm (3840x2160) [10.0 MB] || 12740_NS_Merger_4k_Update_H264.mp4 (3840x2160) [254.9 MB] || 12740_NS_Merger_4k_Update_H264.mov (3840x2160) [516.7 MB] || 12740_NS_Merger_4k_Update_ProRes_3840x2160_5994.mov (3840x2160) [5.1 GB] || 12740_NS_Merger_4k_Update_H264.hwshow [90 bytes] || ", "hits": 696 }, { "id": 11725, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11725/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2015-01-07T13:15:00-05:00", "title": "NASA Missions Take an Unparalleled Look into Superstar Eta Carinae", "description": "Explore Eta Carinae from the inside out with the help of supercomputer simulations and data from NASA satellites and ground-based observatories. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.For complete transcript, click here. || Eta_Car_Density_XY_R10_R100_STILL_1920.jpg (1920x1080) [804.4 KB] || Eta_Car_Density_XY_R10_R100_STILL_1920_print.jpg (1024x576) [52.0 KB] || Eta_Car_Density_XY_R10_R100_STILL.jpg (4928x2772) [874.1 KB] || Eta_Car_Density_XY_R10_R100_STILL.png (4928x2772) [36.6 MB] || Eta_Car_Density_XY_R10_R100_STILL_1920_web.jpg (320x180) [13.1 KB] || Eta_Car_Density_XY_R10_R100_STILL_1920_searchweb.png (320x180) [55.9 KB] || Eta_Car_Density_XY_R10_R100_STILL_1920_thm.png (80x40) [8.0 KB] || Eta_Car_Density_XY_R10_R100_STILL_1920.tiff (1920x1080) [11.9 MB] || G2015-001_Eta_Car_Binary_Final_appletv.webm (960x540) [30.5 MB] || G2015-001_Eta_Car_Binary_Final_ipod_lg.m4v (640x360) [43.2 MB] || G2015-001_Eta_Car_Binary.en_US.vtt [5.2 KB] || G2015-001_Eta_Car_Binary.en_US.srt [5.2 KB] || G2015-001_Eta_Car_Binary_Final_ipod_sm.mp4 (320x240) [22.8 MB] || G2015-001_Eta_Car_Binary_Final_appletv_subtitles.m4v (960x540) [103.9 MB] || G2015-001_Eta_Car_Binary_Final_appletv.m4v (960x540) [104.0 MB] || G2015-001_Eta_Car_Binary_Final_1280x720.wmv (1280x720) [107.6 MB] || 11725_Eta_Car_Binary2_MPEG4_1920X1080_2997.mp4 (1920x1080) [116.9 MB] || 11725_Eta_Car_Binary2_ProRes_1920x1080_2997.mov (1920x1080) [3.5 GB] || 11725_Eta_Car_Binary2_H264_Best_1920x1080_2997.mov (1920x1080) [2.6 GB] || 11725_Eta_Car_Binary2_H264_Good_1920x1080_2997.mov (1920x1080) [506.2 MB] || Eta_Car_Density_XY_R10_R100_STILL.tiff (4928x2772) [104.2 MB] || ", "hits": 140 }, { "id": 10170, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10170/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2014-11-20T14:00:00-05:00", "title": "Highlights of Swift's Decade of Discovery", "description": "A collection of some of Swift's most noteworthy and interesting discoveries and observations from its ten years of viewing the sky.Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.For complete transcript, click here. || Swift_still_print.jpg (1024x576) [115.9 KB] || Swift_still.png (2560x1440) [3.3 MB] || Swift_still_thm.png (80x40) [9.6 KB] || Swift_still_web.jpg (320x180) [20.8 KB] || Swift_still_searchweb.png (320x180) [92.0 KB] || Swift_10_Highlights_H264_Good_1280x720_29.97.webmhd.webm (960x540) [80.6 MB] || G2014-067_Swift_10_Highlights_FINAL_appletv_subtitles.m4v (960x540) [153.8 MB] || G2014-067_Swift_10_Highlights_FINAL_1280x720.wmv (1280x720) [166.6 MB] || Swift_10_Highlights_MPEG4_1280X720_29.97.mp4 (1280x720) [123.7 MB] || G2014-067_Swift_10_Highlights_FINAL_appletv.m4v (960x540) [154.0 MB] || Swift_10_Highlights_H264_Good_1280x720_29.97.mov (1280x720) [351.9 MB] || G2014-067_Swift_10_Highlights_FINAL_youtube_hq.mov (1280x720) [352.2 MB] || G2014-067_Swift_10_Highlights_FINAL_ipod_lg.m4v (640x360) [62.8 MB] || Swift_10_Highlights_SRT_Captions.en_US.vtt [7.2 KB] || Swift_10_Highlights_SRT_Captions.en_US.srt [7.2 KB] || Swift_10_Highlights_H264_640x360_29.97_iPhone.m4v (640x360) [67.4 MB] || G2014-067_Swift_10_Highlights_FINAL_ipod_sm.mp4 (320x240) [32.6 MB] || Swift_10_Highlights_H264_Best_1280x720_59.94.mov (1280x720) [2.5 GB] || Swift_10_Highlights_ProRes_1280x720_59.94.mov (1280x720) [5.2 GB] || ", "hits": 130 }, { "id": 11713, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11713/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2014-10-21T14:00:00-04:00", "title": "Fermi Finds Hints of Starquakes in Magnetar 'Storm'", "description": "Astronomers analyzing data acquired by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope during a rapid-fire \"storm\" of high-energy blasts in 2009 have discovered underlying signals related to seismic waves rippling throughout the host neutron star.The burst storm came from SGR J1550−5418, a neutron star with a super-strong magnetic field, also known as a magnetar. Located about 15,000 light-years away in the constellation Norma, the magnetar was quiet until October 2008, when it entered a period of eruptive activity that ended in April 2009. At times, the object produced hundreds of bursts in as little as 20 minutes, and the most intense explosions emitted more total energy than the sun does in 20 years. High-energy instruments on many spacecraft, including NASA's Swift and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, detected hundreds of gamma-ray and X-ray blasts.An examination of 263 individual bursts detected by Fermi's Gamma-ray Burst Monitor confirms vibrations in the frequency ranges previously only seen in rare giant flares from magnetars. Astronomers suspect these are twisting oscillations of the star where the crust and the core, bound by the magnetic field, vibrate together. In addition, a single burst showed an oscillation at a frequency never seen before and which scientists still do not understand.While there are many efforts to describe the interiors of neutron stars, scientists lack enough observational detail to choose between differing models. Neutron stars reach densities far beyond the reach of laboratories and their interiors may exceed the density of an atomic nucleus by as much as 10 times. Knowing more about how bursts shake up these stars will give theorists an important new window into understanding their internal structure.Magnetar Burst with Torsional Waves || ", "hits": 175 }, { "id": 11118, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11118/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2014-01-08T10:00:00-05:00", "title": "Swift Catches X-ray Activity at the Galaxy's Center", "description": "A seven-year campaign to monitor the center of our galaxy with NASA's Swift spacecraft has provided astronomers with a unique bounty, more than doubling the number of bright X-ray flares observed from our galaxy's central black hole and leading to the discovery of a rare type of neutron star.The innermost region of our galaxy lies 26,000 light-years away in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. At the center of it all lurks Sgr A* (pronounced \"saj a-star\"), a behemoth black hole containing 4 million times the sun's mass.Sgr A* regularly produces bright X-ray flares today, but astronomers know it was much more active in the past. To better understand its long-term behavior, the Swift team began regular observations of the galactic center in February 2006. Every few days, the spacecraft turns toward the inmost galaxy and takes a 17-minute-long \"snapshot\" with its X-Ray Telescope (XRT). Swift's XRT has now detected six bright flares, during which the black hole's X-ray emission brightened by up to 150 times for a couple of hours. These new detections, in addition to four found by other spacecraft, enabled astronomers to estimate that similar flares occur every five to 10 days. The Swift XRT team is on the lookout for the first sign that a small cold gas cloud named G2, which is swinging near Sgr A*, has begun emitting X-rays. This is expected to start sometime in spring 2014. The event will unfold for years and may fuel strong activity from the monster black hole. The monitoring campaign has already yielded one important discovery: SGR J1745-29, an object called a magnetar. This subclass of neutron star has a magnetic field thousands of times stronger than normal; so far, only 26 magnetars are known. A magnetar orbiting Sgr A* may allow scientists to explore important properties of the black hole and test predictions of Einstein’s theory of general relativity. || ", "hits": 321 }, { "id": 11407, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11407/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2013-11-21T14:00:00-05:00", "title": "Briefing Materials: NASA Missions Explore Record-Setting Cosmic Blast", "description": "On Thursday, Nov. 21, 2013, NASA held a media teleconference to discuss new findings related to a brilliant gamma-ray burst detected on April 27. Audio of the teleconference is available for download here.Related feature story: www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-sees-watershed-cosmic-blast-in-unique-detail/.Audio of Sylvia Zhu interview for a Science Podcast. Briefing Speakers Introduction: Paul Hertz, NASA Astrophysics Division Director, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.Charles Dermer, astrophysicist, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C.Thomas Vestrand, astrophysicist, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M.Chryssa Kouveliotou, astrophysicist, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala. Presenter 1: Charles Dermer || ", "hits": 137 }, { "id": 11293, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11293/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2013-06-03T14:00:00-04:00", "title": "NASA Swift Provides the Best-Ever UV View of the Nearest Galaxies", "description": "Astronomers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pa., have used NASA's Swift satellite to create the most detailed surveys of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, the two closest major galaxies, in ultraviolet light.Thousands of images were assembled into seamless portraits of the main body of each galaxy to produce the highest-resolution surveys of the Magellanic Clouds at ultraviolet wavelengths. The project was proposed by Stefan Immler, an astronomer at Goddard.The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, or LMC and SMC for short, lie about 163,000 and 200,000 light-years away, respectively, and orbit each other as well as our own Milky Way galaxy. Compared to the Milky Way, the LMC has about one-tenth its physical size and only 1 percent of its mass. The SMC is only half the size of the LMC and contains about two-thirds of its mass. The new images reveal about a million ultraviolet sources within the LMC and about 250,000 in the SMC. Viewing in the ultraviolet allows astronomers to suppress the light of normal stars like the sun, which are not very bright at these higher energies, and provide a clearer picture of the hottest stars and star-formation regions. Only Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope, or UVOT, is capable of producing such high-resolution wide-field multi-color surveys in the ultraviolet. The LMC and SMC images range from 1,600 to 3,300 angstroms, UV wavelengths largely blocked by Earth's atmosphere. The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are readily visible from the Southern Hemisphere as faint, glowing patches in the night sky. The galaxies are named after Ferdinand Magellan, the Portuguese explorer who in 1519 led an expedition to sail around the world. He and his crew were among the first Europeans to sight the objects.Watch this video on YouTube. || ", "hits": 236 }, { "id": 11109, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11109/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2012-10-12T10:00:00-04:00", "title": "X-ray Satellites Monitor the Clashing Winds of a Colossal Binary", "description": "One of the nearest and richest OB associations in our galaxy is Cygnus OB2, which is located about 4,700 light-years away and hosts some 3,000 hot stars, including about 100 in the O class. Weighing in at more than a dozen times the sun's mass and sporting surface temperatures five to ten times hotter, these ginormous blue-white stars blast their surroundings with intense ultraviolet light and powerful outflows called stellar winds. Two of these stars can be found in the intriguing binary system known as Cygnus OB2 #9. In 2011, NASA's Swift satellite, the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton observatory and several ground-based facilities took part in a campaign to monitor the system as the giant stars raced toward their closest approach. The observations are giving astronomers a more detailed picture of the stars, their orbits and the interaction of their stellar winds. An O-type star is so luminous that the pressure of its starlight actually drives material from its surface, creating particle outflows with speeds of several million miles an hour. Put two of these humongous stars in the same system and their winds can collide during all or part of the orbit, creating both radio emission and X-rays.In 2008, research showed that Cygnus OB2 #9 emitted radio signals that varied every 2.355 years. In parallel, Yael Naz || ", "hits": 203 }, { "id": 11108, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11108/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2012-10-05T13:29:00-04:00", "title": "X-ray Nova Reveals a New Black Hole in Our Galaxy", "description": "On Sept. 16, NASA's Swift satellite detected a rising tide of high-energy X-rays from a source toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The outburst, produced by a rare X-ray nova, announced the presence of a previously unknown stellar-mass black hole. An X-ray nova is a short-lived X-ray source that appears suddenly, reaches its emission peak in a few days and then fades out over a period of months. The outburst arises when a torrent of stored gas suddenly rushes toward one of the most compact objects known, either a neutron star or a black hole. Named Swift J1745-26 after the coordinates of its sky position, the nova is located a few degrees from the center of our galaxy toward the constellation Sagittarius. While astronomers do not know its precise distance, they think the object resides about 20,000 to 30,000 light-years away in the galaxy's inner region. The pattern of X-rays from the nova signals that the central object is a black hole.Ground-based observatories detected infrared and radio emissions, but thick clouds of obscuring dust have prevented astronomers from catching Swift J1745-26 in visible light.The black hole must be a member of a low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) system, which includes a normal, sun-like star. A stream of gas flows from the normal star and enters into a storage disk around the black hole. In most LMXBs, the gas in the disk spirals inward, heats up as it heads toward the black hole, and produces a steady stream of X-rays. But under certain conditions, stable flow within the disk depends on the rate of matter flowing into it from the companion star. At certain rates, the disk fails to maintain a steady internal flow and instead flips between two dramatically different conditions — a cooler, less ionized state where gas simply collects in the outer portion of the disk like water behind a dam, and a hotter, more ionized state that sends a tidal wave of gas surging toward the center.This phenomenon, called the thermal-viscous limit cycle, helps astronomers explain transient outbursts across a wide range of systems, from protoplanetary disks around young stars, to dwarf novae - where the central object is a white dwarf star - and even bright emission from supermassive black holes in the hearts of distant galaxies. || ", "hits": 144 }, { "id": 11019, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11019/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2012-06-28T09:00:00-04:00", "title": "Hubble, Swift Detect First-ever Changes in an Exoplanet Atmosphere", "description": "An international team of astronomers using data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has detected significant changes in the atmosphere of a planet located beyond our solar system. The scientists conclude the atmospheric variations occurred in response to a powerful eruption on the planet's host star, an event observed by NASA's Swift satellite.The exoplanet is HD 189733b, a gas giant similar to Jupiter, but about 14 percent larger and more massive. The planet circles its star at a distance of only 3 million miles, or about 30 times closer than Earth's distance from the sun, and completes an orbit every 2.2 days. Its star, named HD 189733A, is about 80 percent the size and mass of our sun.Astronomers classify the planet as a \"hot Jupiter.\" Previous Hubble observations show that the planet's deep atmosphere reaches a temperature of about 1,900 degrees Fahrenheit (1,030 C).HD 189733b periodically passes across, or transits, its parent star, and these events give astronomers an opportunity to probe its atmosphere and environment. In a previous study, a group led by Lecavelier des Etangs used Hubble to show that hydrogen gas was escaping from the planet's upper atmosphere. The finding made HD 189733b only the second-known \"evaporating\" exoplanet at the time.The system is just 63 light-years away, so close that its star can be seen with binoculars near the famous Dumbbell Nebula. This makes HD 189733b an ideal target for studying the processes that drive atmospheric escape.When HD 189733b transits its star, some of the star's light passes through the planet's atmosphere. This interaction imprints information on the composition and motion of the planet's atmosphere into the star's light.In April 2010, the researchers observed a single transit using Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), but they detected no trace of the planet's atmosphere. Follow-up STIS observations in September 2011 showed a surprising reversal, with striking evidence that a plume of gas was streaming away from the exoplanet.The researchers determined that at least 1,000 tons of gas was leaving the planet's atmosphere every second. The hydrogen atoms were racing away at speeds greater than 300,000 mph. Because X-rays and extreme ultraviolet starlight heat the planet's atmosphere and likely drive its escape, the team also monitored the star with Swift's X-ray Telescope (XRT). On Sept. 7, 2011, just eight hours before Hubble was scheduled to observe the transit, Swift was monitoring the star when it unleashed a powerful flare. It brightened by 3.6 times in X-rays, a spike occurring atop emission levels that already were greater than the sun's. Astronomers estimate that HD 189733b encountered about 3 million times as many X-rays as Earth receives from a solar flare at the threshold of the X class. || ", "hits": 175 }, { "id": 10808, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10808/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2011-11-30T13:00:00-05:00", "title": "The Dual Personality of the 'Christmas Burst'", "description": "The Christmas burst, also known as GRB 101225A, was discovered in the constellation Andromeda by Swift's Burst Alert Telescope at 1:38 p.m. EST on Dec. 25, 2010. Two very different scenarios successfully reproduce features of this peculiar cosmic explosion. It was either caused by novel type of supernova located billions of light-years away or an unusual collision much closer to home, within our own galaxy. Common to both scenarios is the presence of a neutron star, the crushed core that forms when a star many times the sun's mass explodes. According to one science team, the burst occurred in an exotic binary system where a neutron star orbited a normal star that had just entered its red giant phase. The outer atmosphere of the giant expanded so much that it engulfed the neutron star, which resulted in both the ejection of the giant's atmosphere and rapid tightening of the neutron star's orbit. Once the two stars became wrapped in a common envelope of gas, the neutron star may have merged with the giant's core after just five orbits, or about 18 months. The end result of the merger was the birth of a black hole and the production of oppositely directed jets of particles moving at nearly the speed of light, which made the gamma rays, followed by a weak supernova. Based on this interpretation, the event took place about 5.5 billion light-years away, and the team has detected what may be a faint galaxy at the right location.Another team supports an alternative model that involves the tidal disruption of a large comet-like object and the ensuing crash of debris onto a neutron star located only about 10,000 light-years away. Gamma-ray emission occurred when debris fell onto the neutron star. Clumps of cometary material likely made a few orbits, with different clumps following different paths before settling into a disk around the neutron star. X-ray variations detected by Swift's X-Ray Telescope that lasted several hours may have resulted from late-arriving clumps that struck the neutron star as the disk formed. The NASA release is here. || ", "hits": 83 }, { "id": 10871, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10871/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2011-11-11T09:00:00-05:00", "title": "Swift Captures Flyby of Asteroid 2005 YU55", "description": "As asteroid 2005 YU55 swept past Earth in the early morning hours of Wednesday, Nov. 9, telescopes aboard NASA's Swift satellite joined professional and amateur astronomers around the globe in monitoring the fast-moving space rock. The unique ultraviolet data will aid scientists in understanding the asteroid's surface composition.The challenge with 2005 YU55 was its rapid motion across the sky, which was much too fast for Swift to track. Instead, the team trained the spacecraft's optics at two locations along the asteroid's predicted path and let it streak through the field. The first exposure began a few hours after the asteroid's closest approach and fastest sky motion — near 9 p.m. EST on Nov. 8 — but failed to detect it.Six hours later, around 3 a.m. EST on Nov. 9, Swift began an exposure that captured the asteroid sweeping through the Great Square of the constellation Pegasus. The 11th- magnitude rock was then 333,000 miles away and moving at 24,300 mph, about an hour from its closest approach to the Moon. That exposure gave the Swift team more than a streak through the stars. \"A novel feature of Swift is the ability to go into a mode tracking the arrival of every photon captured by the instrument. With that information, we can reconstruct the asteroid as a point source moving through the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope's field of view,\" said Neil Gehrels, lead scientist for Swift at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.The 27-minute-long image was effectively sliced into short 10-second-long exposures, which then were combined into a movie. This allows scientists to study short-term brightness variations caused by the object's rotation.The result is a movie of 2005 YU55 at ultraviolet wavelengths unobtainable from ground-based telescopes. For planetary scientists, this movie is a treasure trove of data that will help them better understand how this asteroid is put together, information that may help make predictions of its motion more secure for centuries to come. The press release on NASA.gov is here. || ", "hits": 83 }, { "id": 10867, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10867/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2011-11-09T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "Swift HD Beauty Shot", "description": "Animation of the Swift spacecraft. || ", "hits": 61 }, { "id": 10807, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10807/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2011-08-24T13:00:00-04:00", "title": "NASA's Swift Satellite Spots Black Hole Devouring A Star", "description": "In late March 2011, NASA's Swift satellite alerted astronomers to intense and unusual high-energy flares from a new source in the constellation Draco. They soon realized that the source, which is now known as Swift J1644+57, was the result of a truly extraordinary event — the awakening of a distant galaxy's dormant black hole as it shredded and consumed a star. The galaxy is so far away that the radiation from the blast has traveled 3.9 billion years before reaching Earth. Most galaxies, including our own, possess a central supersized black hole weighing millions of times the sun's mass. According to the new studies, the black hole in the galaxy hosting Swift J1644+57 may be twice the mass of the four-million-solar-mass black hole lurking at the center of our own Milky Way galaxy. As a star falls toward a black hole, it is ripped apart by intense tides. The gas is corralled into a disk that swirls around the black hole and becomes rapidly heated to temperatures of millions of degrees. The innermost gas in the disk spirals toward the black hole, where rapid motion and magnetism creates dual, oppositely directed \"funnels\" through which some particles may escape. Particle jets driving matter at velocities greater than 80-90 percent the speed of light form along the black hole's spin axis. In the case of Swift J1644+57, one of these jets happened to point straight at Earth.Theoretical studies of tidally disrupted stars suggested that they would appear as flares at optical and ultraviolet energies. The brightness and energy of a black hole's jet is greatly enhanced when viewed head-on. The phenomenon, called relativistic beaming, explains why Swift J1644+57 was seen at X-ray energies and appeared so strikingly luminous. When first detected on March 28, the flares were initially assumed to signal a gamma-ray burst, one of the nearly daily short blasts of high-energy radiation often associated with the death of a massive star and the birth of a black hole in the distant universe. But as the emission continued to brighten and flare, astronomers realized that the most plausible explanation was the tidal disruption of a sun-like star seen as beamed emission. || ", "hits": 382 }, { "id": 10795, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10795/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2011-06-10T14:00:00-04:00", "title": "Nearby Galaxy Boasts Two Monster Black Holes, Both Active", "description": "A study using NASA's Swift satellite and the Chandra X-ray Observatory has found a second supersized black hole at the heart of an unusual nearby galaxy already known to be sporting one. The galaxy, which is known as Markarian 739 or NGC 3758, lies 425 million light-years away toward the constellation Leo. Only about 11,000 light-years separate the two cores, each of which contains a black hole gorging on infalling gas. Astronomers refer to galaxy centers exhibiting such intense emission as active galactic nuclei (AGN). Yet as common as monster black holes are, only about one percent of them are currently powerful AGN. Binary AGN are rarer still: Markarian 739 is only the second identified within half a billion light-years.Many scientists think that disruptive events like galaxy collisions trigger AGN to switch on by sending large amounts of gas toward the black hole. As the gas spirals inward, it becomes extremely hot and radiates huge amounts of energy. || ", "hits": 175 }, { "id": 10767, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10767/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2011-05-11T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "NASA's Fermi Spots 'Superflares' in the Crab Nebula", "description": "The famous Crab Nebula supernova remnant has erupted in an enormous flare five times more powerful than any previously seen from the object. The outburst was first detected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope on April 12 and lasted six days.The nebula, which is the wreckage of an exploded star whose light reached Earth in 1054, is one of the most studied objects in the sky. At the heart of an expanding gas cloud lies what's left of the original star's core, a superdense neutron star that spins 30 times a second. With each rotation, the star swings intense beams of radiation toward Earth, creating the pulsed emission characteristic of spinning neutron stars (also known as pulsars). Apart from these pulses, astrophysicists regarded the Crab Nebula to be a virtually constant source of high-energy radiation. But in January, scientists associated with several orbiting observatories — including NASA's Fermi, Swift and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer — reported long-term brightness changes at X-ray energies.Scientists think that the flares occur as the intense magnetic field near the pulsar undergoes sudden restructuring. Such changes can accelerate particles like electrons to velocities near the speed of light. As these high-speed electrons interact with the magnetic field, they emit gamma rays in a process known as synchrotron emission.To account for the observed emission, scientists say that the electrons must have energies 100 times greater than can be achieved in any particle accelerator on Earth. This makes them the highest-energy electrons known to be associated with any cosmic source.Based on the rise and fall of gamma rays during the April outbursts, scientists estimate that the size of the emitting region must be comparable in size to the solar system. If circular, the region must be smaller than roughly twice Pluto's average distance from the sun.For more Crab Nebula media go to #10708. || ", "hits": 102 }, { "id": 10747, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10747/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2011-04-28T09:00:00-04:00", "title": "Swift and Hubble Probe an Asteroid Crash", "description": "Late last year, astronomers noticed that an asteroid named Scheila had unexpectedly brightened and it was sporting short-lived plumes. Data from NASA's Swift satellite and Hubble Space Telescope show that these changes likely occurred after Scheila was struck by a much smaller asteroid. On Dec. 11, 2010, images from the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey, a project of NASA's Near Earth Object Observations Program, revealed the Scheila to be twice as bright as expected and immersed in a faint comet-like glow. Looking through the survey's archived images, astronomers inferred the outburst began between Nov. 11 and Dec. 3. Three days after the outburst was announced, Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) captured multiple images and a spectrum of the asteroid. Ultraviolet sunlight breaks up the gas molecules surrounding comets; water, for example, is transformed into hydroxyl (OH) and hydrogen (H). But none of the emissions most commonly identified in comets — such as hydroxyl or cyanogen (CN) — show up in the UVOT spectrum. The absence of gas around Scheila led the Swift team to reject scenarios where exposed ice accounted for the activity.Images show the asteroid was flanked in the north by a bright dust plume and in the south by a fainter one. The dual plumes formed as small dust particles excavated by the impact were pushed away from the asteroid by sunlight. Hubble observed the asteroid's fading dust cloud on Dec. 27, 2010, and Jan. 4, 2011.The two teams found the observations were best explained by a collision with a small asteroid impacting Scheila's surface at an angle of less than 30 degrees, leaving a crater 1,000 feet across. Laboratory experiments show a more direct strike probably wouldn't have produced two distinct dust plumes. The researchers estimated the crash ejected more than 660,000 tons of dust—equivalent to nearly twice the mass of the Empire State Building.For the collision animation go to #10759. || ", "hits": 82 }, { "id": 10759, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10759/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2011-04-28T09:00:00-04:00", "title": "(596) Scheila Asteroid Collision Animation", "description": "Late last year, astronomers noticed that an asteroid named Scheila had brightened unexpectedly and was sporting a short-lived tail. Now, data from NASA's Swift satellite and Hubble Space Telescope show that these changes likely occurred after Scheila was struck by a much smaller asteroid. || ", "hits": 63 }, { "id": 10698, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10698/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2011-01-20T09:00:00-05:00", "title": "NASA's Swift Finds 'Missing' Active Galaxies", "description": "Most large galaxies contain a giant central black hole. In an active galaxy, matter falling toward the supermassive black hole powers high-energy emissions so intense that two classes of active galaxies, quasars and blazars, rank as the most luminous objects in the universe. Thick clouds of dust and gas near the central black hole screens out ultraviolet, optical and low-energy (or soft) X-ray light. Although there are many different types of active galaxy, astronomers explain the different observed properties based on how the galaxy angles into our line of sight. We view the brightest ones nearly face on, but as the angle increases, the surrounding ring of gas and dust absorbs increasing amounts of the black hole's emissions. || ", "hits": 218 }, { "id": 10708, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10708/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2011-01-12T12:00:00-05:00", "title": "A Flickering X-ray Candle", "description": "The Crab Nebula, created by a supernova seen nearly a thousand years ago, is one of the sky's most famous \"star wrecks.\" For decades, most astronomers have regarded it as the steadiest beacon at X-ray energies, but data from orbiting observatories show unexpected variations, showing astronomers their hard X-ray \"standard candle\" isn't as steady as they once thought. From 1999 to 2008, the Crab brightened and faded by as much as 3.5 percent a year, and since 2008, it has faded by 7 percent. The Gamma-ray Burst Monitor on NASA's Fermi satellite first detected the decline, and Fermi's Large Area Telescope also spotted two gamma-ray flares at even higher energies. Scientists think the X-rays reveal processes deep within the nebula, in a region powered by a rapidly spinning neutron star — the core of the star that blew up. But figuring out exactly where the Crab's X-rays are changing over the long term will require a new generation of X-ray telescopes. || ", "hits": 71 }, { "id": 10549, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10549/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2010-05-26T10:00:00-04:00", "title": "Swift Survey Finds 'Smoking Gun' of Black Hole Activation", "description": "Astronomers using X-ray data from an ongoing survey by NASA's Swift satellite have solved a decades-long mystery. Why, when most galaxies host giant black holes in their centers, do only about one percent of them emit vast amounts of energy? The new findings confirm that the black holes \"light up\" when galaxies collide — and may offer insight into the future behavior of the black hole in our own galaxy. The intense emission from galaxy centers, or nuclei, arises near a supermassive black hole containing between a million and a billion times the sun's mass. Giving off as much as 10 billion times the sun's energy, some of these active galactic nuclei (AGN) — a class that includes quasars and blazars — are the most luminous objects in the universe. || ", "hits": 140 }, { "id": 3702, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/3702/", "result_type": "Visualization", "release_date": "2010-04-19T11:00:00-04:00", "title": "Swift Detects its 500th Gamma Ray Burst", "description": "The NASA Swift mission has detected 500 gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) to-date.This movie is presented as an all-sky map in a Hammer projection (Wikipedia). Each burst lights on the appropriate date and then fades to a green dot to emphasize the random distribution of GRBs on the sky.Another version of this visualization is available at Swift's 500 Gamma-ray Bursts. || ", "hits": 80 }, { "id": 10590, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10590/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2010-04-19T11:00:00-04:00", "title": "Swift's 500 Gamma-ray Bursts", "description": "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. || ", "hits": 76 }, { "id": 10507, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10507/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2009-10-28T01:45:00-04:00", "title": "Gamma-Rays from High-Mass X-Ray Binaries", "description": "In its first year, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope discovered GeV (billions of electron volts) intensity variations revealing orbital motion in high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs). These are systems where a compact companion, such as a neutron star or a black hole, rapidly orbits a hot, young, massive star. The first examples include LSI +61 303, which sports a 26-day orbital period, and LS 5039 (3.9 days). This animation shows such a system. When the compact object lies far from its host star, TeV (trillions of electron volts) gamma-rays (white) are seen by ground-based gamma-ray observatories. But, as the object plunges closer to the star, the TeV emission is quenched and GeV emission turns on. Interactions by accelerated particles from the compact source with gas encircling the star — or in some systems, the star's light itself — is thought to be responsible for this change. || ", "hits": 87 }, { "id": 10485, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10485/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2009-09-16T09:40:00-04:00", "title": "Swift's UV portrait of the Andromeda Galaxy", "description": "NASA's Swift satellite has acquired the highest-resolution view of the neighboring spiral galaxy M31. Also known as the Andromeda Galaxy, M31 is the largest and closest such galaxy to our own. It's more than 220,000 light-years across and lies 2.5 million light-years away in the constellation Andromeda. Between May 25 and July 26, 2008, Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) acquired 330 images of M31 at wavelengths of 192.8, 224.6, and 260 nanometers. The images represent a total exposure time of 24 hours. Some 20,000 ultraviolet sources are visible in the image, including M32, a small galaxy in orbit around M31. Dense clusters of hot, young, blue stars sparkle in the disk beyond the galaxy's smooth, redder central bulge. Star clusters are especially plentiful along a ring about 150,000 light-years across. || ", "hits": 644 }, { "id": 10426, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10426/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2009-07-02T13:50:00-04:00", "title": "Vela Pulsar in Gamma Rays", "description": "This movie shows pulsed gamma rays from the Vela pulsar as constructed from photons detected by Fermi's Large Area Telescope. The Vela pulsar, which spins 11 times a second, is the brightest persistent source of gamma rays in the sky. The movie includes data from August 4 to Sept. 15, 2008. The bluer color in the latter part of the pulse indicates the presence of gamma rays with energies exceeding a billion electron volts (1 GeV). For comparison, visible light has energies between two and three electron volts. Red indicates gamma rays with energies less than 300 million electron volts (MeV); green, gamma rays between 300 MeV and 1 GeV; and blue shows gamma rays greater than 1 GeV. The movie frame is 30 degrees across. The background, which shows diffuse gamma-ray emission from the Milky Way, is about 15 times brighter here than it actually is. || ", "hits": 131 }, { "id": 10366, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10366/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2009-02-10T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "Soft Gamma-Ray Repeater Light Echoes Captured by Swift Satellite", "description": "The X-Ray Telescope (XRT) aboard NASA's Swift satellite captured light echoes from a soft-gamma-ray repeater. These stellar remnants, which are thought to be highly magnetized neutron stars called magnetars, occasionally belt out a series of X- and gamma-ray flares. On Jan. 22, 2009, an object known as SGR J1550-5418 began its second and most intense round of outbursts since October 2008. In the following days, Swift's XRT captured what appears to be an expanding halo as X-rays from the brightest bursts scatter off of intervening dust. Multiple rings form as the X-rays interact with different dust clouds. Closer clouds produce larger rings. Both the rings and their apparent expansion are an effect of light's finite speed and the longer path the scattered light must travel. They will be studied to make a more reliable measurement of the distance to the source and to the dust clouds. || ", "hits": 92 }, { "id": 10369, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10369/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2009-01-15T00:00:00-05:00", "title": "Naked-Eye Gamma-ray Burst Model for GRB 080319B", "description": "Gamma-ray bursts that are longer than two seconds are caused by the detonation of a rapidly rotating massive star at the end of its life on the main sequence. Jets of particles and gamma radiation are emitted in opposite directions from the stellar core as the star collapses. In this model, a narrow beam of gamma rays is emitted, followed by a wider beam of gamma rays. The narrow beam for GRB 080319B was aimed almost precisely at the Earth, which made it the brightest gamma-ray burst observed to date by NASA's Swift satellite. || ", "hits": 98 }, { "id": 10253, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10253/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2008-09-26T01:00:00-04:00", "title": "Scientists Watch Baby Black Hole Get to Work Fast", "description": "Scientists using NASA's Swift satellite say they have found newborn black holes, just seconds old, in a confused state of existence, sloppily gorging on material falling into them while somehow propelling other material away at great speeds. These black holes are born in massive star explosions. An initial blast obliterates the star. Yet the chaotic black hole activity appears to re-energize the explosion again and again over the course of several minutes. This is a dramatically different view of star death, one that entails multiple explosive outbursts and not just a single bang, as previously thought.When a massive star runs out of fuel, it no longer has the energy to support its mass. The core collapses and forms a black hole. Shockwaves bounce out and obliterate the outer shells of the star. Previously scientists thought that a single explosion is followed by a graceful afterglow of the dying embers. Now, according to Swift observations, it appears that a newborn black hole in the core somehow re-energizes the explosion again and again, creating multiple bursts all within a few minutes. || ", "hits": 218 }, { "id": 10323, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10323/", "result_type": "Produced Video", "release_date": "2008-08-05T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "GLASTCast Episode 3 - Swift and GLAST", "description": "NASA's GLAST mission is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, along with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, and the U.S. What's the difference between the Swift and GLAST satellites? Both missions look at gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), but in different ways. Swift can rapidly and precisely determine the locations of GRBs and observe their afterglows at X-ray, ultraviolet, and optical wavelengths. GLAST will provide exquisite observations of the burst over the gamma ray spectrum, giving scientists their first complete view of the total energy released in these extraordinary events. Beyond GRB science, GLAST is a multipurpose observatory that will study a broad range of cosmic phenomena. Swift is also a multipurpose observatory, but was built primarily to study GRBs. Interviews with (in order of appearance): David Thompson - GLAST Deputy Project Scientist, NASA Goddard Charles \"Chip\" Meegan - GLAST Burst Monitor (GBM) Principal Investigator, NASA Marshall Lynn Cominsky - GLAST Astrophysicist and Education and Public Outreach Lead, Sonoma State University Neil Gehrels - GLAST Deputy Project Scientist, NASA Goddard Steve Ritz - GLAST Project Scientist, NASA Goddard Alan Marscher - Professor of Astronomy, Boston University || ", "hits": 36 }, { "id": 20155, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20155/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2008-07-21T12:00:00-04:00", "title": "Swift Spacecraft Animations", "description": "Swift searches for Gamma Ray Bursts and stellar explosions || ", "hits": 39 }, { "id": 20139, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20139/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2008-05-22T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Gamma Ray Burst", "description": "This animation was used to illustrate a gamma ray burst that NASA's SWIFT might see. || Gamma Ray Burst || GRBHD039100377_print.jpg (1024x576) [43.9 KB] || GRBHD0391_web.png (320x180) [267.8 KB] || GRBHD0391_thm.png (80x40) [15.0 KB] || 1280x720_16x9_60p (1280x720) [32.0 KB] || grb_hd_720p.m2v (1280x720) [20.5 MB] || grb_hd_720p.webmhd.webm (960x540) [2.0 MB] || a010245_grb_hd_720p.mp4 (640x360) [1.6 MB] || grb_hd_512x288.m1v (512x288) [2.9 MB] || ", "hits": 42 }, { "id": 20077, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/20077/", "result_type": "Animation", "release_date": "2006-08-18T00:00:00-04:00", "title": "Cosmic Explosion Second Only to the Sun in Brightness", "description": "The gamma ray flare produced by neutron star SGR 1806-20, traveled 50,000 light years before impacting Earth. The burst was so powerful, that it disrupted Earth's ionosphere. Scientists know of only two other giant flares in the past 35 years, and this December 27, 2005 event was one hundred times more powerful than either of those || ", "hits": 268 } ] }