NASA's Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory has beamed back stunning cosmic images just weeks before its fiery plunge to Earth.

Swift was launched in 2004 to detect and monitor gamma-ray bursts. After 21 years of science operations, its low-Earth orbit began to decay rapidly because of increased solar activity.

The new images include NGC 1097, a spiral galaxy about 48 million light-years away, the Small Magellanic Cloud and NGC 4151, which hosts an actively growing supermassive black hole.

A daring mission to catch and lift Swift to a higher orbit failed over the summer. Katalyst Space's LINK robotic servicing spacecraft did not complete the rescue.

Swift is currently about 200 miles above Earth. NASA expects it to re-enter the atmosphere later this year, possibly around November. The 1,470-kilogram observatory will most likely break up and largely burn up."" Swift's data archive will remain available to researchers. The observatory discovered hundreds of gamma-ray bursts during its lifetime. NASA said the mission exceeded all expectations.