Skip to main content
Collaboration

Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory

Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory

Gamma-ray bursts are fleeting events, lasting only a few milliseconds to a few minutes, never to appear in the same spot again. They occur from our vantage point about once a day. Some bursts appear to be from massive star explosions that form black holes.

The Swift observatory comprises three telescopes, which work in tandem to provide rapid identification and multi-wavelength follow-up of GRBs and their afterglows. Within 20 to 75 seconds of a detected GRB, the observatory will rotate autonomously, so the onboard X-ray and optical telescopes can view the burst. The afterglows will be monitored over their durations, and the data will be rapidly released to the public.

The X-ray Telescope (XRT) and the UV/Optical Telescope (UVOT) were built by Penn State and collaborators at Leicester University and the Mullard Space Science Laboratory (both in England) and at the Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera (in Italy). In addition, Penn State is responsible leads Mission Operations Center, which operates the satellite. [Text and image from https://www.swift.psu.edu/ and https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/main]

Visit the collaboration website

Name Role Affiliations Email Phone Office Centers Research topics
James DeLaunay James DeLaunay Faculty Astronomy jjd330@psu.edu +1 814 865 6834 520 Davey Laboratory CMA
Abe Falcone Abe Falcone Faculty Astronomy adf15@psu.edu +1 814 863 5364 516 Davey Laboratory CMA Cosmic Rays, Multimessenger Astrophysics, Quasars, Dynamic Universe
Derek Fox Derek Fox Faculty Astronomy dbf11@psu.edu +1 814 863 4989 425 Davey Laboratory CMA, CTOC Multimessenger Astrophysics, Neutrinos, Dynamic Universe
Caryl Gronwall Caryl Gronwall Faculty Astronomy cag18@psu.edu +1 814 865 2918 417B Davey Laboratory CMA, CTOC Astrostatistics, Cosmic Surveys
Kyle Neumann Kyle Neumann Graduate Student Astronomy kdn5172@psu.edu (814) 865-0418 537 Davey Laboratory IGC Black Holes, Gravitational Waves, Multimessenger Astrophysics, Dynamic Universe
Name Role Affiliations Email Phone Office Centers Research topics
Samuele Ronchini Samuele Ronchini Postdoc Astronomy sjs8171@psu.edu 8148657705 IV Building CMA, IGC Gravitational Waves, Multimessenger Astrophysics
About our wordmark
Monica Rincon Ramirez

The IGC wordmark was created by Monica Rincon Ramirez while she was a graduate student at the Institute. Monica enjoys drawing new connections between fundamental theory and observations. Her graduate work included general relativity, loop quantum gravity, and quantum fields in cosmological backgrounds; her thesis focused on effective quantum corrections to gravitational phenomena from spinfoams and applications to cosmology. She received her PhD in 2024.

The wordmark symbolizes the scope of research at the IGC. The base represents quantum gravity, evoking the quantum geometrical picture from spinfoams and loop quantum gravity — approaches studied at the Center for Fundamental Theory. The middle shows galaxies embedded in a smooth surface characteristic of spacetime in general relativity and the larger physical scales studied at the Center for Theoretical and Observational Cosmology. The top curves to an extreme representing a supermassive black hole accompanied by an energetic jet, with a binary black hole pair nearby — the high-energy phenomena studied at the Center for Multimessenger Astrophysics.