this post was submitted on 08 May 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] [email protected] 47 points 6 months ago (4 children)

Why is Jupiter stopping us from getting asteroid hugs?

[–] [email protected] 47 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Its gravitational pull moves asteroids away from the inner ring of planets.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I should have added a sarcasm tag! My bad.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago

Jupiter is fucking sick though, what a homie of a planet

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago

Asteroid hugs fucking hurt.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Jupiter says, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me"

[–] the_post_of_tom_joad 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

So Jupiter's forever storm is like that thing my wife holds against me for when we have an argument later?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I mean, you didn't kill the dinosaurs. Or did you ಠ_ಠ

[–] the_post_of_tom_joad 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I didn't not kill them... 👉 👈

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Because the last big one it left through caused a stop to Earths space probes visiting it for like 66 million years.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 6 months ago (1 children)

He looks like a jovial fella.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

Spending time with him is just a gas!

[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Jupiter has a huge influence in the Solarsystem, the big gravitation of Jupiter and also the Sun can deflect most of the asteroids and Comets from the Earth orbit, but in certain circumstances can do the opposite and launch objects into Earth's orbit, depending on what angle they enter the system..

A good example is Apophis (∅~370 m), which is coming to visit us in 2029, although at quite a distance, but it will return in Abril 2036 and in this case, if it passes through a certain point there is a possibility that it will impact the Earth..

https://neal.fun/asteroid-launcher/

Simulate an impact where ever you want and see the consecuences scrolling down the results.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Oh, ok, it will target New York, the movies were right!

/s

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

The White House is also a good target. Maybe also the Coronado Naval Base

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

What a great & optimal design for actual humans to live and work - it would have been cheaper to make a square building with giant floors and a fraction of the windows (and far less natural light for inhabitants).
They prob left the remaining sides free to not infringe on MS Windows logo trademark.

And H designs are just somehow aesthetically unpleasing to me personally (for real).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

optimal design for actual humans to live and work

And H designs are just somehow aesthetically unpleasing to me personally (for real).

Because I agree with those points I resigned it by flipping the edges:

.║ ║ ║
.║ ║ ║
.╚═╬═╝
. ║
.══╩══

If we orient it south and try to distribute sunlight fairly we may get something like this:

. ║
.║ ║ ║
.╚═╬═╝
. ║
.╚═╩═╝

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Yes, I agree with that.l, cozy.

But lets make a compromise between design and art and make it:

​​​​​​​​​

║ ║ ║ ║
║ ║ ║ ║ ║

╚═╩═╬═╩═╝

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Do we have ways/plans to prevent the potential hit or is it a "we will see" thing?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

There are several plans to avoid it, but it depends of several factors. We can avoid an impact if we know the exact position several Years before the supposed impact, if not, there is nothing we can do.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Childhood fear suddenly resurfaced.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Watch Don't Look Up. It's about an asteroid heading for earth in our current political climate

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago (2 children)

There's a giant asteroid that's trying to hit us but is caught in Jupiter's orbit?

[–] [email protected] 33 points 6 months ago

Many. That's why it has so many moons

[–] [email protected] 30 points 6 months ago (5 children)

Jupiter is our guardian angel. A big asteroid-deflecting gas giant might be a condition for complex life as we know it to evolve.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (3 children)

It's always impressive how perfect our solar system is.

Our range from the sun, our own moon, our magnetosphere, Jupiter...

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago

Well if it wasn't perfect we wouldn't be here to observe it not being perfect, so just by our existence we can't observe conditions that are not perfect for us existing... or something like that 😅

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

"Wow," says a puddle in a ditch. "This ditch is shaped exactly like me. If it weren't for the ditch's precise shape, I couldn't have formed here. I'm really lucky." The puddle, of course, has never seen a puddle in a different ditch and never realised that puddles come in many shapes.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 6 months ago

How clever. The point is this puddle has seen many other ditches, and we've learned that the particulars of our solar system are interesting, if not uncommon.

Spare me the condescension with the storybook reply

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Don't forget about Pluto protecting us from the cold unknown.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

Every good solar systems has a big ol' Electrolux in common.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The trouble I have with statements like this is that “as we know it” is doing so much of the heavy lifting. We don’t have any experience with extraterrestrial life so it’s difficult to imagine how different or similar it may be to our own. We have a sample size of 1 with a completely unknown population. The best we can do right now look at line spectra and make inferences from organic chemistry. But that tells us very little about the potential forms life may take.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Well yeah, but if you want to look for planets with life, it's probably a good idea to look the ones with conditions we know work.

[–] zalgotext 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Or at the very least, look at planets that have minimal global catastrophes

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Trisolaris has left the chat

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I never got that. Surely, it's nearly as likely to divert an asteroid that would miss us to a course that would hit us as it is to do the opposite, right? The number that are actually trapped/impacted is a tiny percentage, and then the percentage of those that would have hit us must be a small percentage of that, is it really enough to be statistically significant?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (4 children)

Jupiter is doing a terrible job at protecting us from meteorites. Just ask the dinosaurs.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 6 months ago

I think he does alright, everyone has a bad day now and then. Can't blame him for slipping once

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago

I asked mine, she said "pretty bird?". She's right.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

According to one of the newer Kurzgesagt videos, it may not be a meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

It was Dave, wasn't it? That guy is such a fuck up!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

That's a p good batting average tbh

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Explain to me, how is Jupiter deflecting a significant number of asteroids if it can only be in one place at any one time and its orbit is nearly 12 years long? Wouldn't asteroids have a huge window to get past it while it's on the other side of the sun?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Same thing for Earth, it can only be at one place at anytime, creating a huge window for any asteroid to missed earth. And when it missed, it must loop around and orbit the sun, multiple times, increasing the chance of it got caught in Jupiter's gravitational well, which is a pretty massive distance.

Orbital mechanic is crazy and make no sense for a peasant like me. You would think hitting the sun is the easiest thing but It's actually really hard to launch something into the sun. And would require an enormous energy to do so.

Ever wonder why don't we just launch our nuclear waste into the sun? I thought so too and do some Google search about it. It was an interesting read.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I'm pretty sure I remember reading that Jupiter's "protector" status might also be overblown, as it actually sends asteroids into the inner solar system as well.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

I dont know for sure, but its likely to do with the fact that the asteroids orbit the sun too. Even if the asteroid is coming in on the other side of the sun from jupiter, it has to orbit the sun in order get there in the first, meaning there's a good chance it gets caught by jupiter before it can get close

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Stop right there, criminal scum! Nobody breaks the law on my watch! I'm confiscating your stolen goods. Now pay your fine or it's off to jail.