IS JUPITER IS PROTECTING US?

Earth has good reason to be grateful to the king of the Solar System, though its influence isn’t always benign

Andrew May

Jupiter is by far the largest planet in the Solar System, containing more than twice as much mass as the rest of the planets put together. As such, its influence on the dynamics of the Solar System is second only to the Sun itself, and it’s often said that Jupiter is the planetary ‘protector’ of Earth. But is that true, and if so, how does it work? To start with, Jupiter isn’t really that close to us. The distance from Earth to the Sun is one astronomical unit (AU), while that between the Sun and Jupiter is much bigger at around 5.2 AU. This means that Jupiter never gets closer to us than 4.2 AU, and it’s often much further away than that. And as big as Jupiter is, it…

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All About Space Annual (Digital) - 1 Issue, All About Space Annual (2024)

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