[Pontiac]

With Jupiter life on this planet might never have evolved at all. At least not much past say, the celhlepods (octopus, cuttlefish, etc). Jupiter is our ‘’cosmic short stop’’. It’s massive gravity pulls in stuff that would otherwise come crashing into us.

The Moon also serves this purpose as evidenced by its cratered surface.

[rmh47]

Yes, Jupiter is the first line of defense for large objects crashing into the Earth. The Moon is next, and if all else fails, we have Russia.

[jmacusa]

The cratering of the Moon was done in it’s early days. The Moon didn’t intercept Shoemaker-Levy 9 in 1994. Jupiter did. had it not we would have been obliterated.