Jupiter IS THE GREAT PROTECTOR EATING SO MANY ASTEROIDS AND COMETS THAT DON'T GET PAST JUPITER. IS LITERALLY PROTECTING US WITH ITS HUGE GRAVITY PULL. I THINK BRENTFAVREVIKING ABOVE IS AN IDIOT. JUST SAYING.
I mean technically Jupiter and the Sun are the reason we don't have a planet/planets where the big asteroid belt is now. The gravity between the two is too strong.
Or... it was a planet, long ago. And it housed an advanced civilization that knew its demise was imminent. They sent a single son to a planet called Earth.
I'm not sure if this is true. The total mass of the asteroid belt, of which Ceres is 25%, is I something like 4% of our Moon's mass. That would make it one tiny planet.
I took an Astronomy class last semester for my major, my professor said something along the lines of "the gravity between the Sun and Jupiter keeps the asteroids in the belt from forming into larger bodies and from joining together with other bodies in our solar system."
This has been true since the formation of Jupiter according to what she said. I just thought it was interesting, perhaps I should have paid more attention in class so I could explain it better :)
Sorry for the late reply, and sorry if I didn't communicate my general point well. I think, if I remember accurately, what I was disputing was that a planet might have possibly formed there under somewhat different circumstances, mainly given the general lack of matter there now. If my words came across as implying that this:
"the gravity between the Sun and Jupiter keeps the asteroids in the belt from forming into larger bodies and from joining together with other bodies in our solar system."
...was incorrect, I really do apologise as, as I understand it, that is pretty much very much true.
For some background on the subject: essentially for a good while there was speculation that there indeed was a planet there based on some nifty mathematics about the regular spacing of the orbits of the known planets, however Jupiter's gravity, or something else entirely perhaps, led to it's destruction (though the nifty mathematics essentially proved to be, at least on this matter just coincidence). So, I may have been...starting off on wrong assumptions. However, in any event, if you are curious, I would suggest the wiki articles Phaeton (hypothetical planet)) and Titius–Bode law as jumping off points.
No need to apologise, I took no offense to anything! I'm also used to being wrong, as I am young with a lot to learn.
I love space and find it fascinating, so thank you for the articles! I appreciate the very respectful reply, you are quite an awesome person. Happy New Year, I will enjoy reading these articles :)
Wow, do you guys have a capital letter war going on? He just capitalized each word, and while that was admittedly provocative, was the escalation to All Caps really necessary? I could have gone All Caps in Italics and really shook things up, but I knew the response would only be All Caps in Bold, and nobody wants that. Let's all just dial it back about 25%, okay?
The way we're fucking up our planet, yeah I think we're pretty damn terrifying, give us some advanced technology with our current mindset and we'll surely fuck up the entire solar system.
No no...Jupiter is actually a really good friend and guardian of sorts.
With its humongous size and gravity a lot of asteroids are unable to find their way to earth, because they find Jupiter more attractive. Were it not been there, we'd probably see a lot more fireballs raining.
But then it is also able to deflect pieces of rocks towards us....so, I don't know. Probably he's a friend who's also an asshole.
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u/BrentFavreViking Dec 29 '20
Whether They Ever Find Life There Or Not, I Think Jupiter Should Be Considered An Enemy Planet.