Darn tooting. Most folks go about their daily lives with no clue as to what goes on above us in the heavens and that’s probably a good thing. My wife and I are amateur astronomists.(very amateur) I have a 6-inch refractor scope . The Atlantic Ocean is about eight miles due east of my backyard so there’s always a lot to see and almost no light pollution. Anyway, tell most folks that in July 1994 we all down here on Earth got the chance to see what could have happened to us if things like deflection, angle, velocity, gravity and sheer chance stacked up against us and a big hunk of rock the size of Mt. Everest, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 had plowed into us. It would have been THE END. Not like some of the planet would have survived or anything like that, nope, that would have been IT, curtains. But the odds didn’t stack up against us that time, thank God. And also the fact that our big cosmic ‘’shortstop, the planet Jupiter is out there pulling in stuff that would normally come smashing into us. Hasn’t always worked and might not some day but so far Ol’ Jupiter has been doing a pretty good job. I’ve told folks that sometimes and I swear to God I’ve seen the color drain out of some peoples faces when I’ve told them this. It’s a good thing not to tell most people this. I mean, bad enough we’re going to get it someday but imagine what five and a half billion bat-poop crazy humans would do if they knew they all had anywhere from a few months to maybe just a few weeks to live?
Jupiter, the cosmic short-stop, I love it!