Bringing an extraordinary era of astronomical discovery to an end, NASA’s legendary Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has officially fallen back to Earth after spending nearly 22 years in space. Ground control confirmed that the pioneering space telescope re-entered Earth’s atmosphere over Indonesia. Originally launched with a mission lifespan design of just two years, the satellite far outlasted its original goals and completely transformed our modern understanding of black holes, exploding stars, and intense cosmic radiation bursts. Its final descent concludes more than two decades of revealing the secrets behind the universe’s most violent and powerful explosions.
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