Many students may wonder exactly what the recently launched Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer, a satellite with a $250 million price tag, does.

The satellite, funded by NASA and managed by a team at Penn State, offers the first comprehensive study of what causes gamma-ray bursts, said Sally Hunsberger, a research associate who worked on one of Swift's three telescopes.

Finding the origin of gamma-ray bursts could help scientists learn more about the creation of the universe, said Adam Morgan (junior-astronomy and astrophysics), who works on software for the mission.

"Gamma-ray bursts are the second most powerful explosions in the universe" after explosions that were part of the Big Bang, Hunsberger said.

Gamma rays are the most energetic known waves of the electromagnetic spectrum, she said.

A gamma-ray burst is millions of times more powerful than a hydrogen bomb.

Gamma-ray bursts are similar to lightning flashes because they are quick bursts of light and occur randomly, Morgan said.

Peter Meszaros, professor of astronomy and astrophysics and science theory lead of Swift consortium, said gamma-ray bursts form when a very large star -- about 30 times the mass of the sun -- runs out of nuclear fuel.

This causes the core of the star to collapse, forming a black hole, Meszaros said.

The black hole swallows very hot gases but can't consume all of the gases, he said.

This results in gases being ejected as gamma-ray bursts that only last for several seconds, he said.

Morgan said it is important to study gamma-ray bursts in a timely manner because they exist so briefly.

The bursts are so unpredictable and so quick that they can only be studied by their resulting afterglows, which last for days or even weeks as they dim, Hunsberger said.

Afterglows exist as X-rays, ultraviolet light and optical light, she said.

Other NASA missions, such as the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, BeppoSAX and HETE-2, have studied gamma-ray bursts, Hunsberger said.

Swift, however, is unique because its speed allows it to respond to the bursts more quickly, and therefore to study the afterglows more accurately, Morgan said.

Swift will have a one-minute response time from when it detects a gamma-ray burst and when it studies the afterglow, Meszaros said.

By comparison, the BeppoSAX satellite, launched in 1996, had an eight-hour delay between the time it detected a gamma-ray burst and when it could study the afterglow, Meszaros said.

"By being able to measure afterglows, Swift should be able to help determine what causes gamma-ray bursts," said Chris Palma, lecturer of astronomy and outreach fellow for the Eberly College of Science.

Swift will accomplish this task by using its three telescopes -- the Burst Alert Telescope (BAT), the X-ray Telescope (XRT) and the Ultraviolet Optical Telescope (UVOT), Hunsberger said.

The BAT detects the initial burst, and then Swift automatically moves the other two telescopes into position to study the afterglow, Morgan said.

Palma said the XRT and UVOT, both built by Penn State, instantaneously focus on the area of the gamma-ray burst to analyze X-rays and ultraviolet light coming from the afterglow.

About as big as a full-size van, the Swift satellite does not have the biggest telescopes, Morgan said.

It cannot study afterglows in depth as well as ground telescopes can, he added.

Scientists at Swift's Mission Operations Center (MOC), located in a business complex near University Park, can decide if a gamma-ray burst and its afterglow need more study.

Then they can order follow-up observations by ground telescopes, Morgan said.

MOC is responsible for operating and controlling the satellite, he said.

Swift's data is received at MOC through another satellite and a ground station in Kenya, which is operated by L'Agenzia Spaziale Italiana, also known as ASI, the Italian space agency, Morgan said.

The data is made public almost immediately so that other institutions around the world can study it, Meszaros said.