[jmacusa]

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. Most of the time though not always. It’s better that the great mass of humanity not know just how much of a crap shoot it is living on this little smote of dust and water. It’s one thing to have some big chunk of iron coming at you at 40,000 mph a second. It’s quite another when 5 billion people find out they have maybe only a few weeks or a month to live.

[jmacusa]

Typo. Meant to say “Without Jupiter’’

[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.