ALBERT

Description: The Swift gamma-ray burst explorer was launched on Nov. 20,2004 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The first instrument onboard became fully operational less than a month later. Since that time the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) on Swift has detected more than one hundred gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), most of which have also been observed within two minutes by the Swift narrow-field instruments: the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) and the Ultra-Violet and Optical Telescope (UVOT). Swift trigger notices are distributed worldwide within seconds of the trigger through the Gamma-ray burst Coordinates Network (GCN) and a substantial fraction of GRBs have been followed up by ground and space-based telescopes, ranging in wavelength from radio to TeV. Results have included the first rapid localization of a short GRB and further validation of the theory that short and long bursts have different origins; detailed observations of the short-term power-law decay of burst afterglows leading to an improved understanding of the fireball model; and detection of the most distant GRB ever found. Swift is also a sensitive X-ray observatory with capabilities to monitor galactic and extragalactic transients on a daily basis, carry out the first all-sky hard X-ray survey since HEAO-1, and study in detail the spectra of X-ray transients. significant results, both in GRB science and in the search for and study of hard X-ray sources. In this talk I will provide a broad overview of the Swift mission and its most significant results, both in GRB science and in the search for and study of hard X-ray sources.