Running interference

https://safelyendangered.com/

31 comments

Should've been Jupiter instead of the moon. Since Jupiter protects the inner solar system from most asteroids and comets.
- Nah. Jupiter would be like "Yummy! Moar!!!"
  
  agree, would make more sense a comet asking Neptune for directions, and then colliding with Jupiter with Pac-Man face
  
  It's way more complicated than that:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zu41rrc_Ng
  The way the complicated orbital mechanics work, there is a "gate" which is the only place where asteroids/comets/whatever can cross Jupiter's orbit. This doesn't usually result in them hitting Jupiter, but it does limit their options for hitting Earth.
  Been a while since I watched the video, so I don't remember all the details, but that should be the basic gist.
- Here's a <1pg read about Jupiter and comets.
  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.
  
  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.
  
  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.
  
  Just as his namesake god, sometimes benevolent, sometimes an asshole. Though slightly less of an asshole, it seems
- In the bando of the Solar System, Jupiter is the pitbull
- Jupiter is "the big one".

The moon doesn't actually protect the Earth from asteroids. It's a net-zero because the extra mass attracts more asteroids.
- Your mom’s extra mass attracts more asteroids.
  
  ~~How did you kn...~~ uh I mean, nuh-uh!
  
  Ok, I'm old. Asteroid is slang for what?
- It's not really about "attracting" asteroids, it's more about their orbital trajectory happening to intersect the Earth's at the right time. I think the Moon's gravity is about as likely to redirect an asteroid towards the Earth as it is away, but the Moon also physically intercepts some asteroids, so the net effect would be a slight decrease in Earthly asteroid impacts.