Science
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1 day agoNASA halts Swift science to buy time for reboost mission
NASA halted most Swift science operations and stopped slewing to minimize atmospheric drag while awaiting a planned reboost to raise its low orbit.
GRBs are extremely energetic explosions that rank among the most powerful astrophysical events in the universe, so luminous they can be seen from billions of light-years away. They're most commonly caused by either a merging pair of neutron stars or a very massive star ending its life in a supernova called a collapsar; in both of these classical cases, the resulting stellar cataclysm can spit out a giant, tightly focused jet of radiation and particles.