NASA's destroyed Swift Observatory took one of the best-ever photos of bright Andromeda — Space photo of the week

NASA's Swift Observatory went out in a blaze of glory this week, but it left behind millions of images of the universe that could fuel discoveries for decades.

Early Wednesday (Nov. 4), NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory fell out of space, burning up in the sky over Sumatra. It was a fitting, fiery end for a telescope that spent 22 years studying the most powerful explosions in the universe — and, even with Swift gone, its observations will continue to feed scientific curiosity for years to come.

Swift's most important contributions to astronomy are not exactly eye candy. Designed to swivel toward deep-space explosions at a moment's notice, Swift excelled at capturing bright, fleeting and faraway specks of light.…