Season 8 Episode 12: NASA gets a boost from Swift and Pets vs Serious Mental Health Issues

A space telescope is quietly slipping toward Earth, and the rescue plan sounds like science fiction: send up an autonomous robotic spacecraft, match speed in low Earth orbit, grab the aging observatory, and gently push it higher before it burns up. We walk through the attempted save of the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, why Swift is so important to astronomy, and how it acts like NASA’s first responder for gamma ray bursts that vanish in minutes but can outshine entire galaxies.

We also dig into the “why now” behind the crisis. Swift has lasted more than 20 years, but increased atmospheric drag tied to the Sun’s active solar cycle is pulling it down faster than expected. Then we break down the Link mission plan step by step: month-long approach, careful imaging, delicate latching at orbital speeds, and a slow reboost designed to protect an older spacecraft. If this works, it opens the door to satellite servicing, mission life extension, and even future ways to manage space debris and keep scientific work going longer without constantly launching replacements.

Then we shift into pet science with a serious question: does pet ownership protect against self-harm among teenagers and young adults with a history of self-harm? We summarize a study from the University of Manchester (published in Anthrozoos) and focus on the biggest takeaway: stronger emotional bonds with pets are linked with better outcomes, while simply having more pets is not. We also talk about what the study cannot prove, and why support systems are bigger than any single factor.

If you like smart space news and thoughtful evidence-based conversations about pets and mental health, subscribe, share the show, and leave a review so more curious listeners can find us.

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Transcript

Episode Kickoff And Wild Weather

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hello, science enthusiasts. I'm Jason Zakowski.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

And I'm Chris Zikowski.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

We're the pet parents of Bunsen, Beaker, Bernoulli, and Ginger.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

The science animals on social media.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

If you love science.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

And you love pets.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

You've come to the right spot. So put on your safety glasses.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

And hold on to your tail.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

This is the Science Podcast. Hey everybody, and welcome back to the Science Podcast. We hope you're happy and healthy out there. This is episode 12 of season eight. We survived the tornado and the hail, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

There wasn't a tornado specifically for our area. It was a warning. And we received the emergency alert on our phone, and about seven of them came in within 15 minutes. So I thought it was imminent. But we just watched the sky and then the hail came, but no tornado touched down on our property or near us. Now that's not to say that other locations didn't have a tornado or have worse hail than us. I know some areas definitely had golf ball-size hail, which is unfortunate.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Yeah, we've had some weird weather and it has been so rainy. I think we you know it was nice and hot for a bit today, but now it looks like it's gonna storm again. So weird weather for us. Normally it's dry in July and dry in June, and it has not been so odd weather.

SPEAKER_01 1:36

But we're really hoping that it washes a beaver in.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

That's right. Then we'll have some more science to talk about with beaver stuff on the show.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

On the show, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:46

Yeah. Speaking of the show, we have a couple fun science news items to talk about. One is the rescue attempt of the Swift Space Telescope, which is cool. And then the other is in the pet realm, and it's actually a study that looked at do uh does pet ownership help protect against self-harm among teenagers? So that's a pretty heavy topic, but it's an interesting one because we think pets help our mental health, but would it help a teenager who has some mental health issues? Now, though we are breaking down the study, Chris, you and I are not mental health professionals. This is not any kind of diagnosis. This is just talking about the study that was done.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

So if you're experiencing mental health concerns or someone that you know is, call 911 or go to your nearest hospital.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Yeah. Good point. All right, let's get on with the show. There's no time like Science Time.

Swift Telescope Rescue Mission Begins

SPEAKER_00 2:53

This week in Science News, NASA is sending a robotic space tug ship up to move the Swift Space Telescope out of a near-death spiral. Now, if that doesn't grab your attention, I don't know what else will.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

It's called Swift, and I thought maybe we were going to talk about Taylor Swift and the recent wedding.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 3:17

That gets people's attention.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Okay. I think more people probably care about the Taylor Swift wedding than this high-stakes space rescue.

SPEAKER_01 3:26

Why not both?

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Oh, yeah. I don't know. Taylor Swift needs to break up with an astronaut, obviously. Anyways, so there's a private spacecraft called Link, and it's being launched to save the Neil Gayruz Swift Observatory from falling back to Earth. Now, the plan all along was to allow the telescope to burn up in the atmosphere. But technology has advanced to the point where these telescopes that as they near the end of their life or they start to fall back down to Earth, maybe NASA can boop them back into low Earth orbit. But Chris, what the heck is the Swift Space Telescope?

What Swift Sees In The Sky

SPEAKER_01 4:07

It was launched on November 20th, 2004. And it originally was designed for a two-year mission, but it is now operated for over 20 years. And it was built specifically to detect and rapidly study gamma ray bursts, which are called GRBs, which are the most energetic explosions known in the universe. So it's already outlived its original operation period, and that allows scientists to maybe really rethink the rescue mission because it's still doing great stuff. Actually, it's on pause right now. We'll get to that.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

You gotta know about those gamma ray bursts because they could turn mild-mannered scientists into a rage monster.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Really?

SPEAKER_00 4:58

That's the Hulk, Chris.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Oh, yes. That is the incredible Hulk.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

Yeah. So gamma ray bursts do not cause mild-mannered scientists to turn into rage monsters. They are these enormous explosions that release more energy in seconds than our sun will literally produce in its entire 10 billion year lifetime. So we're talking about huge bursts of energy that would just vaporize you. You would not mutate. They occur when huge stars collapse into black holes, like a supernova or two neutron stars collide. That's wild. We actually had a scientist talk to us about what happens when two neutron stars collide a couple years ago, or some other cataclysmic, violent cosmic event. But because gamma ray bursts disappear really quickly, astronomers kind of need something that can see them and respond immediately.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

And that's why the Swift telescope is unique. Because unlike most space telescopes that basically stare at or look at one small region of space, Swift constantly watches for sudden cosmic explosions. So it can actually rotate, the scientific name for that is SLU, to a new target in less than two minutes. So it's basically NASA's first responder for explosive events. What it does is once it detects a burst, it immediately turns towards it. It measures the gamma rays and it observes the fading X-rays and ultraviolet light. And then it sends the location to observatories around the world within seconds. So that's where larger telescopes, which include the ground observation places that we have here on Earth, and also the Hubble Space Telescope, because then they are alerted and then they can follow up with detailed observations once they know the location of the burst.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

The way that it was explained in a YouTube video I watched, because I'm nerdy and I watch other uh science communicators and space nerds talk about things, as is the Swift telescopes like a scout. So it it just basically is a tattletale. There's a GRB, and then the better stuff that we have does the super nerdy science. But without the tattletail telling you what's going on, you're gonna miss it. So that's what's one really cool thing about the Swift. Now we could go into a lot of details about how this thing operates. It's pretty technical, but it's done great work, as you mentioned. It's detected over 1,800 gamma ray bursts. It's confirmed that many long-duration gamma ray bursts come from exploding stars, and it's studied these collisions of neutron stars, and it looks at black holes and helps monitor them. It's helped produce thousands of scientific papers. So it's extremely valuable to NASA. The problem is that it outlived its two-year lifespan. I love how NASA builds things, and they're like, you guys, how much is how long will this last? And they're like, five minutes. We'll get it to space, it'll last five minutes. And then the thing lasts 15 years. So they kind of underestimate how long their stuff's gonna last for. But, anyways, Chris, why is the Swift telescope in danger?

Why Solar Activity Pulls It Down

SPEAKER_01 8:21

To be fair, every satellite that is in low Earth orbit slowly loses altitude because of atmospheric drag. So normally Earth's atmosphere is extremely thin at the altitude where Swift is, and the drag is minimal. However, the sun entered a period of heightened activity in 2024 near the peak of its 11-year solar cycle. And so what that did is increased ultraviolet radiation and that heated Earth's upper atmosphere, which then the atmosphere expanded farther into space, and even at around 600 kilometers altitude, the satellites there experienced noticeably more drag. So NASA realized this in early 2025 that the SWIFT was descending much faster than they expected. So without intervention, it would have re-entered Earth's atmosphere during this year, mid-2026, probably right now, and it would have burned up completely.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

Not yet, though.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Not yet, no, because there's a rescue mission.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

It's on its way down. The ship is going down, the band is playing, and the captain is staying with the ship. Now, here comes the rescue mission. Have they left? The space rats probably left first. Anyways, the re here comes the rescue mission mission.

Link Tries To Catch A Satellite

SPEAKER_00 9:49

So NASA chose a private aerospace company called Catalyst in September of last year, 2025, and basically said, guys, you've got nine months to design and build and test and launch this thing to save it. And they're like, Bet, we'll do it. And their solution was called Link, which is an autonomous robotic servicing spacecraft. So it's uncrewed. This thing's gonna fly up and try to haul Swift back into low Earth orbit. So it launched. Link has already launched as we are recording this podcast. Link launched on July 3rd. That's why it's making all of the news. So after it's launched, there's going to be a whole bunch of checks that get done while it's in space. And then over a month, it's going to slowly approach Swift. So this is not, it's not racing there in a day. It's going to take a while to get there. They need to grab it very carefully. So there's cameras on Link, take photographs of it all the time. And then the on-Earth engineers determine the best place to grab it. And it's actually gonna use little robot arms to catch it.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

But they're traveling at a high rate of speed, roughly 28,000 kilometers per hour. Catching it or latching onto it is, as you said, very delicate because they are going quickly. Once the Swift is caught, the plan is to raise its orbit. And how they're going to do that is small thrusters are going to gently fire over several months. And so because Link will do that, hopefully the orbit of Swift will be gradually raised back toward the 600 kilometer altitude, and that gentle acceleration prevents damage to the aging spacecraft. And then SWIFT will restart. It's not collecting data right now because they wanted to stop Swift from looking around and on gamma ray bursts because that would have impacted the atmospheric drag. So once they get Swift back into the proper altitude, it will do some system checks, reboot, and do some calibration of its instruments. And then it might take a few more months to return to scientific observations.

What This Means For Space Junk

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Now, if Link succeeds, this is going to be a huge breakthrough. This is why all the space nerds, including myself, are really excited. The plan was always to have these low Earth orbit satellites eventually burn up. And they're eventually going to get enough drag. They themselves will run out of fuel to readjust their altitude. They do have fuel to do that, but they eventually are going to run out and the thing's going to burn out. And it's it was an inevitability that I learned about way back in high school. These robotic servicing missions could reboost most satellites back to higher orbits. You could send fuel with them so they could dock and give those satellites or spacecrafts more fuel. And if they can link up with something moving that fast and it's autonomous, potentially you could repair damage. You could then extend these missions. Instead of something lasting a few years, it could last a few decades. It could also go and move space debris, which is cool. And the Hubble Space Telescope eventually will meet its demise in this method too. However, if Link works, NASA could use the same technology to boost Hubble back up and have it keep doing great work for science.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

No, that's what I love. That's what I love about this link when we're looking at how much space junk we have actually orbiting our Earth and out there in space. If there's a way to reduce, reuse, recycle that, I think that's glorious. So using this to extend the life of the satellites and so that they're not burning up or they're not just floating around aimlessly as space junk is super important.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

Now there always be more powerful telescopes out there. The web telescope right now is the crown jewel of NASA. But the older telescopes and the older instruments still do really good work. Space is so huge, there's no way Hubble, even though it's now considered very old technology, it could still look at things close to home with its really powerful mirrors. It'd be a real shame to lose that. And the cost of putting a new telescope in space is astronomical now. So that's kind of cool. It's like a little hot rod kid that's coming at somebody who's walking around with a cane with a skateboard and it's gonna take them back into orbit. It's a fun picture to think about.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

It's giving the old guy a replacement hip.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Yeah, there

Pets And Self-Harm Study Framing

SPEAKER_00 14:52

you go. This week in Pet Science, we're gonna talk about how pets could help or maybe not help with teenagers and self-harm. Now, the study asked among young people who have a history of self-harm, do pets make a measurable difference? And this is a heavy topic. So just a couple caveats, and as it is a heavy topic, we have some heavy words coming up here. Self-harm is not a suicide attempt, it's a coping mechanism to deal with a lot of emotions, but having a history of self-harm really does increase your risk of suicide. So it's it's correlated, right? So they're looking at self-harm and pets. And how did they set up the study, Chris?

How The Study Measures Mental Health

SPEAKER_01 15:39

So researchers surveyed 169 young people from ages 16 to 24, and every participant that they studied or surveyed had a history of self-harm. Of those people, of those 169 young people, 113 owned pets and 56 did not. There were several factors that were measured, like anxiety, depression, suicide risk, severity of self-harm, and the number of different self-harm methods, as well as the time since the last self-harm incident. So that's what the researchers measured. And then for the pet owners, they also measured how emotionally close they felt to their pet, the number of pets that they had, and the variety of pets. So the study just wasn't, do you own a dog? It actually went much deeper than that.

Why Bond Matters More Than Count

SPEAKER_01 16:39

And they found some findings that were pretty striking. So what the researchers said is that those differences aren't tiny. Several were considered moderate to large effects, statistically speaking.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

They also found that the more pets folks owned didn't make things necessarily better. Owning three dogs or four cats or a zoo didn't predict better outcomes. The single biggest predictor was how strong the emotional bond was between the person and their pet. So when the survey surveyed young people said they had a strong bond with their pet, as opposed to there being a pet in their house, that's where they saw all of these positive effects that you were mentioning, Chris. Pets provide routine and companionship, a reason to get out of bed. They don't judge you, they don't criticize you, they're just they're there, and for the most part, they really love you. And for someone in crisis, this is a lot of stability and a lot of emotional support. Then that might matter enormously to folks that are in crisis.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

The researchers looked at different types of pets because some of our listeners might be wondering what type of pet did these young people owned. And most participants owned dogs, 61%, and there were cat owners at 46%. But the researchers noted that the different animals help people in different ways. So if you're a dog owner or you know about dogs, actually may encourage the exercise, the routine. Let's get outside, let's meet people. Whereas cats provide physical comfort and quiet companionship. Now, other pets may also offer routine and mindfulness through daily care, but that wasn't specifically studied in this study. It was, and the researchers had a smaller sample size, so it actually wasn't large enough to compare the different species.

Limits Of The Data And Meaning

SPEAKER_00 18:42

So this study that was published in Anthrozoos from the University of Manchester doesn't prove necessarily that pets reduce harm. It just shows an association. It could be that pets help people do better mentally. It could show that families that support pet ownership can provide other protective factors, and that strong bonds with pets help your mental health. And this is a snapshot in time, so researchers can't determine cause and effect. So not necessarily correlation, just association. And then there's also some drawbacks to owning a pet, right? Like the study says that one of the conclusions is that people with mental health struggles shouldn't get a pet. That's not what this is they're saying, because pets can be expensive and they require a lot of your time. You may not have the proper housing for them, blah, blah, blah. We've talked about the positives and negatives of pet ownership. But the key takeaway seems to be from the study that if you already have a meaningful relationship with a pet, that relationship may become an important part of your support system. And that may lead you to different choices or different protective effects with self-harm. Alright, that's Pet Science for this

Patreon Shoutouts And Closing

SPEAKER_00 19:58

week. That's it for this week's show. Thanks for coming back week after week to listen to the Science Podcast. And a shout out to all the top dogs. That's the top tier of our Patreon community, The Pop Pack. You can sign up in our show notes. Alright, Chris, let's hear those names that are part of the top dogs.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

Amelia Fetting, Re Oda, Carol Haino, Jennifer Challenge, Linnea Janet, Karen Cronister, Vicky Oteiro, Christy Walker, Sarah Brown, Wendy, Diane, Mason and Luke, Helen Chin, Elizabeth Bourgeois, Marianne McNally, Katherine Jordan, Shelly Smith, Laura Stephenson, Tracy Leinbaugh, Anne Uchida, Heather Burbach, Kelly, Tracy Halbert, Ben Rather, Debbie Anderson, Sandy Brimer, Mary Rader, Bianca Hyde, Andrew Lynn, Brenda Clark, Brianne Hawes, Peggy McKeel, Holly Birch, Kathy Zirker, Susan Wagner, and Liz Button.

SPEAKER_02 20:57

Take in the code with the ups and down.