Rescue failed! NASA's Swift satellite crashed into the Earth this week, and some debris may hit the surface

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Swift Observatory, which has been in space for 22 years, will crash and return to Earth around Friday (6th) due to its rapid orbital decay and the failure of its recent emergency rescue mission.

The Associated Press reports that the U.S. Space Force is closely tracking the path of the Swift Observatory's wreckage. Most of the 1.5-ton telescope will burn up in the violent friction of the atmosphere, but scientists warn that some "tungsten" metal parts and special lenses that are harder than lead and have a high density will still have a high chance of surviving the high temperatures and falling to the ground.

The Swift Observatory was launched on November 20, 2004. It specializes in capturing the most violent explosive phenomena in the universe, including gamma ray bursts and supernova explosions. It can "swivel swiftly" at unexpected celestial events at an astonishing speed, hence the name "Swift". In NASA's deep space observation network, it is positioned as the "first responder". Once a cosmic explosion warning is detected, it will immediately report it, allowing large space telescopes such as Hubble and Webb to carry out deep exploration.

Due to intense solar activity in recent years, the altitude of Swift Observatory in low orbit has dropped sharply. Although NASA launched a three-arm robot named "Link" in July to try for docking and rescue, it failed due to a malfunction after liftoff and was unable to get close. The rescue mission failed. The robot subsequently crashed in September.

After the rescue efforts failed, the Swift Observatory continued to capture many rare gamma ray bursts and ultra-high-energy events on the eve of the end. By late October, because the flight altitude was too low to maintain the attitude for stable observations, the ground control team reluctantly shut down all its systems.

The U.S. Space Force estimates that the surviving debris has a high probability of falling into the high seas, but large areas of land including Africa, Australia, India, Southeast Asia, and Central and South America are still within the potential return zone, and scientists are closely monitoring it.