How Swift is Redefining Time Domain Astronomy

Understand

NASA's Swift satellite has completed ten years of amazing discoveries in time domain astronomy.

• Its primary mission is to chase gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), but due to its scheduling flexibility it has subsequently become a prime discovery machine for new types of behavior.
• The list of major discoveries in GRBs and other transients includes the long-lived X-ray afterglows and flares from GRBs, the first accurate localization of short GRBs, the discovery of GRBs at high redshift (z>8), supernova shock break-out from SN Ib, a jetted tidal disruption event, an ultra-long class of GRBs, high energy emission from flare stars, novae and supernovae with unusual characteristics, magnetars with glitches in their spin periods, and a short GRB with evidence of an accompanying kilonova.
• Swift has developed a dynamic synergism with ground based observatories.