Swift Mission Characteristics
Multi-wavelength observatory
- Burst Alert Telescope (BAT): 10-150 keV
- detect ~ 150 GRB per year
- onboard computation of positions
- arc-minute positional accuracy
- Dedicated telescopes for X-rays, UV, and optical afterglow follow up:
- 0.3-10 keV X-ray Telescope (XRT)
- 170-650 nm UV/Optical Telescope (UVOT)
- 0.3-2.5 arc-second locations
- existing hardware from JET-X and XMM
- determine redshifts from X-ray absorption, lines, and Lyman-a cutoff
-
- 20 - 70 sec to slew within FOV of BAT
-
- autonomous operations
- factor 100 improved response time
- continue monitoring of fading afterglow
- rapid dissemination of the data