The Swift gamma-ray burst mission: First results

Abstract

Since its launch on 20 November 2004, the Swift mission is detecting 100 new gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)each year, and immediately (within tens of seconds)starting simultaneous X-ray and UV/optical observations of the afterglow.It has already collected am impressive database of bursts, including prompt emission to higher sensitivity than BATSE, uniform monitoring of afterglows, and rapid follow-up by other observatories notified through the GCN. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.