Posted by: R Murray
A defunct NASA space telescope is expected to plummet back to Earth sometime today.
After attempts to save it failed earlier this year, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, aka the Swift telescope, was shut down at the end of October.
The telescope, about the size of a minibus with solar-panel wings, is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere sometime on November 4 (AEDT).
Where it will land, and what will survive its fiery re-entry remain unknown.
What is the Swift Observatory?
The 1.5-tonne space telescope was launched in 2004 to research the origin of high-energy gamma-ray blasts.
Astrophysicists, including Brad Tucker of the Australian National University, used it to study cosmic explosions such as supernovas, stellar collisions and stars being ripped apart by black holes.
In its lifetime, Swift detected at least 1,400 supernovas.
"It may not be as big or as popular as Hubble or James Webb Space Telescopes, but we have used it for ages," Dr Tucker said.
Over the past 22 years, it had been slowly dropping in altitude due to drag from Earth's atmosphere, but increased solar activity over the past two years (the same activity that has been causing spectacular auroras on Earth) hastened its demise.