Jupiter’s gravity is thought to sling most of these fast-moving ice balls out of the solar system before they can get close to Earth… Without Jupiter nearby, long-period comets would collide with our planet much more frequently.
Consider that its powerful gravity prevented space rocks orbiting near it from coalescing into a planet, and that’s why our solar system today has an asteroid belt, consisting of hundreds of thousands of small flying chunks of debris. Today, Jupiter’s gravity continues to affect the asteroids – only now it nudges some asteroids toward the sun, where they have the possibility of colliding with Earth.
Editorial: It’s a double-edged sword that favors us far more often than it doesn’t. The human problem is that it only takes one collision to end us.
I see what you mean. But, take out the word “slightly” and it’s also how most of us perceive ourselves and how we should be treated by an authority. It seems exemplified in our anthropomorphized perceptions of most gods.
Dinosaurs were ended with a roughly 10-15km meteroirite hitting earth, and causing months of distortions and damage to the ecosystem that disrupted their way of life enough that they starved or died of other causes.
They were not nearly as adaptable as we are in modern times.
To be sure, a lot of progress would die, and life would be greatly disrupted, but we, as a species, would almost certainly survive a similar event.
If we humans did not chronically overestimate self and underestimate risk then we’d all choose to kill ourselves. Individuals can be smart. But, when pressured or at scale we’re really fucking stupid.
causing months of distortions and damage
It wasn’t months. It was centuries of upheaval before systems restabilized, double digit human generations.
Sure, the asteroid wouldn’t kill all of humanity. The subsequent choices of the few that remained almost certainly would. We’re fragile, ordinary creatures that just got here and immediately set about killing one another and the planet itself.
I mean it’s a mathematical inevitability that earth will get hit eventually. Having Jupiter there just gave us better odds. Luck doesn’t last forever though.
![Running interference [Safely Endangered]](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/e44d33c7-f989-404a-beda-7b18949d9fe7.jpeg){kind=link}
Here’s a <1pg read about Jupiter and comets.
Editorial: It’s a double-edged sword that favors us far more often than it doesn’t. The human problem is that it only takes one collision to end us.
Just as his namesake god, sometimes benevolent, sometimes an asshole. Though slightly less of an asshole, it seems
I see what you mean. But, take out the word “slightly” and it’s also how most of us perceive ourselves and how we should be treated by an authority. It seems exemplified in our anthropomorphized perceptions of most gods.
Yeah, polytheistic gods are basically people, with all consequences thereof. Powerful, but not omnipotent, nor omniscient.
We’ve been telling stories of those people to make sense of the universe, but the story is ultimately about us.
To clarify, we likely wouldn’t end as a species.
Dinosaurs were ended with a roughly 10-15km meteroirite hitting earth, and causing months of distortions and damage to the ecosystem that disrupted their way of life enough that they starved or died of other causes.
They were not nearly as adaptable as we are in modern times.
To be sure, a lot of progress would die, and life would be greatly disrupted, but we, as a species, would almost certainly survive a similar event.
If we humans did not chronically overestimate self and underestimate risk then we’d all choose to kill ourselves. Individuals can be smart. But, when pressured or at scale we’re really fucking stupid.
It wasn’t months. It was centuries of upheaval before systems restabilized, double digit human generations.
Sure, the asteroid wouldn’t kill all of humanity. The subsequent choices of the few that remained almost certainly would. We’re fragile, ordinary creatures that just got here and immediately set about killing one another and the planet itself.
That is certainly one way it could go.
I mean it’s a mathematical inevitability that earth will get hit eventually. Having Jupiter there just gave us better odds. Luck doesn’t last forever though.
I think the odds are better that we kill ourselves before a comet does it for us ;)
Oh I’ve felt that way for decades. Humanity is never escaping this rock.
All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.