Good Jupiter

[Brianhjh]

One of the requirements for life is...

[b]"Good Jupiters"[/b]

"Good Jupiters" are gas giant planets, like the solar system's Jupiter, that orbit their stars in circular orbits far enough away from the HZ to not disturb it but close enough to "protect" terrestrial planets in closer orbit in two critical ways. First, they help to stabilize the orbits, and thereby the climates, of the inner planets. Second, they keep the inner solar system relatively free of comets and asteroids that could cause devastating impacts [26]. Jupiter orbits the sun at about five times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. This is the rough distance we should expect to find good Jupiters elsewhere. Jupiter's "caretaker" role was dramatically illustrated in 1994 when Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacted the giant; had Jovian gravity not captured the comet, it may well have entered the inner solar system.


meaning, if the Solar system didn't have Jupiter, comets would collide on Earth much, much more often than they are now, spelling doom on all life as we know it.


Source: Wikipedia.

_________________
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v233/Brianhjh/emesprani151.gif[/img] "Sarah's future makes me sad." - Benk

[PhunkYMunkY]

Thankyou Jupiter.

Notice how there's no such think as a "good Uranus" >: (

Lousy Uranus.

I never did like Uranus.

[dolphinprincess]

Wikipedia. Love that place, gives me nifty info when I need it.

*bows* Thank you, oh giant, gas planet, Jupiter...
_________________
It took me about ten minutes to defeat Giga Bowser, Ganondorf, and Mewtwo from Super Smash Brothers Melee using Peach.
How long did it take my brother to defeat those characters using Yoshi? Two minutes.
I like to obsess over stuff. Here are all the things I'm obsessing over:
Song: Seize the Day by Default
Anime: D.Gray Man
Anime character(s): Kanda
Video Game: Super Smash Brothers Brawl
Video Game character: Wolf O-Donnell from Star Fox Assault
OC: Ray Eclrida, copyright of me (duh!)
OC Quote: "No, he just keeps getting beaten in the head with his own stupidity."-Ray Eclrida

[bungakawa2000]

I couldn't find that article on Wikipedia. Could you link to it? Also, I'm curious as to what exactly is "much, much more" and if it is really a cause of concern. Because if instead of having a massive extinction every 10,000,000 years (disclaimer: number out of thin air), Earth had a massive extinction every 5,000,000 years... would it really matter?

ETA: Nevermind, finally found it (the article is "planetary habitability").