NASA's Swift Space Telescope Set to Re-Enter Atmosphere, Parts May Reach India
The 22-year-old Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere on Nov. 4, with a broad re-entry zone that includes parts of India, though the likelihood of debris reaching the ground is low.
NASA announced that the 1.5-tonne Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere on Nov. 4 around 3:30 a.m. ET (2 p.m. IST). The satellite, launched in November 2004, is expected to burn up largely, but a small fraction of its mass could survive and reach the surface.
Brad Cenko, the mission’s chief scientist, told the Associated Press that the re-entry corridor spans latitudes between 20.6° south and 20.6° north, covering portions of Africa, Australia, India, Southeast Asia and Central and South America. In India, the band runs roughly from Daman on the west coast to Cuttack in Odisha on the east, placing cities such as Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai within the possible debris zone, while Delhi and Kolkata lie outside it.
"Obviously a lot of that latitude band is ocean," astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell said.
"If 70 percent of the Earth is ocean, 30 percent is land. So three out of ten times it’s on land, not ocean," astrophysicist Brad Tucker added.
India’s space agency, ISRO, operates a Multi-Object Tracking Radar at Sriharikota to monitor objects before re-entry, though officials have not confirmed whether it is tracking Swift. Experts note that the probability of debris causing damage or injury is extremely low.
During its extended mission, Swift observed more than 2,000 gamma-ray bursts and about 1,400 supernovae, far exceeding its original two-year design life.