NASA Swift Observatory

And even closer to home - comets! Swift and @NASAHubble caught a brightening from Asteroid Scheila after it collided with a smaller asteroid. https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10747 pic.twitter.com/Jcxoop0jKq

Did you know that Swift studies exoplanet systems? Here's an X-ray flare from the host star (HD 189733b) of a hot-Jupiter just before it transits #Swift15Science https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11019 pic.twitter.com/vHmUygDiof

Mega-flares from a mini-star: Don’t let the small size fool you, Swift caught a flare from a nearby red dwarf which was 10,000 times more powerful than anything we’ve observed from our sun! https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11531 pic.twitter.com/WI60bxu9l4

And of course Swift is much more than just GRBs and supernovae. Here are a few representative examples of some of the broad science the community is undertaking for #Swift15Science: Hot, young and blue stars sparkle in Swift’s ultraviolet view of our neighbor the Andromeda galaxypic.twitter.com/aOaJqgXTi0

ASASSN-15lh: A mysterious transient from @SuperASASSN. The most luminous supernova yet discovered? An extremely energetic tidal disruption event? The jury may still be out on this one ...pic.twitter.com/10LdYabZS5

AT2018cow: A mysterious “cow” observed by Swift explodes 10 times brighter than a typical supernova. https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12855 pic.twitter.com/WCUcwgeoUJ

SN2008D: For the first time, Swift serendipitously caught a supernova explosion as it was happening pic.twitter.com/nrd79YiTXB

More fun cosmic explosions for #Swift15Science - Swift J1644+57: an unlucky star wanders too close to a supermassive black hole and is shredded to bits. The resulting tidal disruption event also marks the birth of a relativistic jet. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/bursts/devoured-star.html …pic.twitter.com/If2Ci1NxV9

More GRB #Swift15Science - a new class of ultra-long (> 10,000 s) GRBs, possibly powered by the explosion of blue supergiant stars. https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11250 pic.twitter.com/HgqyXkJysL

GRB060218 - Still the second nearest GRB detected by Swift, joint observations by the XRT and UVOT captured the prompt "shock breakout" of the progenitor star, as well as the associated H- and He-poor supernova SN2006aj (Figure from Campana et al. 2006). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GRB_060218 pic.twitter.com/bV56EWjuHd

GRB080319B - A rapidly rotating massive star explodes into a gamma-ray burst so bright you could have seen it with just your eyes! The "naked eye" burst is still the brightest afterglow Swift has seen since launch @Judy_Racusin #Swift15Science https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10369 pic.twitter.com/GQn5loHZwN

Some more fun GRB science for #Swift15Science - Still the most distant (spectroscopically confirmed) GRB at z = 8.2, when the Universe was just 600 million years old and around the time that reionization was taking place, GRB090423. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GRB_090423 pic.twitter.com/zQ8Vo42VGF

Over the next decade the accumulation of more afterglows strongly supported an older progenitor system, and the locations of these afterglows *within* their host galaxies were consistent with predictions for binary neutron star mergers (figure from Fong et al. 2013) ...pic.twitter.com/4ulqeOc9Yi