Earth’s Very Own Cosmic Guardian
There is a reason Jupiter is known as the King Planet.
With a mass 317 times that of Earth’s and a radius 11 times wider than Earth’s, Jupiter is massive compared to other planets. It boasts upwards of 100 moons and its own set of over 7,000 asteroids in another system known as the Trojan asteroids. However, alongside this, Jupiter also has another special talent that benefits us.
Between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars lie approximately 1,500,000 asteroids, ranging from the size of a pebble to a whole kilometer in diameter, with some going upwards of 10 km in diameter! These are also very near to us, sitting at around 1.3 astronomical units, with an astronomical unit being the distance from the Sun to Earth (150,000,000 kilometers). What’s even scarier is that an estimated 26,000 similarly-sized asteroids exist in an orbit very similar to our planet’s orbit. The real mystery that comes from the sheer amount of these asteroids is, why don’t any of them cross paths with our planet?
This can be attributed to Jupiter’s very, very special talent.
Jupiter’s size and gravity can sling astronomical objects destined for us away and potentially into interstellar space with what is called a gravity assist. When astronomical bodies swing too close to a bigger source of gravity, the speed and direction of the planet are added to the body. Imagine throwing a baseball moving at 40 kph at a train moving backwards at 50 kph (don’t do this!). The ball will reflect off the train with the train’s added speed.
In addition to deflection, Jupiter can also absorb objects. Because Jupiter’s gravity is so strong, any object that is caught and put into orbit around Jupiter, if small enough, will end up crashing into Jupiter directly.
Jupiter and Earth’s relationship is simply a byproduct of numerous laws and mechanics that all go hand in hand to keep the solar system, and us, stable and relatively peaceful. Many more examples of relationships like ours exist in our solar system—all pointing to the intelligent design of our Creator.
By the way, the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs wasn’t from the asteroid belt; neither was it a near-Earth asteroid. Just thought it was worth pointing out.
Sources:
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2021/07/asteroids-earth-space-danger-commets-nasa/
https://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov/about/neo_groups.html
https://www.space.com/16105-asteroid-belt.html
https://science.nasa.gov/jupiter/jupiter-facts/
https://www.icr.org/content/jupiter-mighty-guardian-earth
https://www.britannica.com/science/Trojan-asteroid
https://science.nasa.gov/resource/what-is-a-lagrange-point/