Jupiter is flinging asteroids at Earth 'like a sniper', top scientist warns

Fox News ^ | Thursday, January 9, 2020 | Charlotte Edwards | The Sun

[SunkenCiv]

The popular Jupiter Shield theory proposes that the planet acts like a giant space shield due to its huge mass causing it to suck in or deflect dangerous debris.

However, this shield theory is slowly falling out of favor and one of the leading critics is space expert Kevin Grazier. [Kevin R. Grazier, Ph.D.]

He's published several papers explaining why he thinks Jupiter is a "sniper rather than a shield".

Recently, he's been aiming to prove how this 'sniper-like' process works.

Grazier's extensive work could put the Jupiter Shield theory in jeopardy.

He told Gizmodo: "Actually, I wouldn't say that it's in jeopardy -- I would say that it has been laid to rest.

"Our simulations show that Jupiter is just as likely to send comets at Earth as deflect them away, and we've seen that in the real solar system."

[sit-rep]

We’re Doomed!!

[Telepathic Intruder]

For now, it’s a planet. But just remember what happened to Pluto...

[SunkenCiv]

:^) Not until post 7? This place has gone way downhill.

[real saxophonist]

You got Asteroids?

[a fool in paradise]

Flings, like a monkey?...

[Bratch]

IOW, asteroids, aka planet droppings, emerge from Uranus then are flung by Jupiter, like a giant space baboon, at the innocent bystander Earth.

Where’s the interstellar zookeeper when you need her?

[mewzilla]

https://images.app.goo.gl/uXniUTZBvxd3dxs98

[Carriage Hill]

Write a big check. That’ll do it.

[EvilCapitalist]

Sorry. I’m slow today. :-)

[SunkenCiv]

Nothin'. If a mile-wide asteroid hits the Earth, we're done. Probably one a half-mile wide (circa 1/8 the mass) would do it.

[EvilCapitalist]

I only use the rolls with pictures of Nancy Pelosi on each sheet.

[Seruzawa]

And these people expect to be taken seriously.

[Jeff Chandler]

One of them smart bugs.

Oh well, off to the coed showers.

[PIF]

Just fling a mini-black hole or 2 into in that will solve the problem in a few centuries

[SunkenCiv]

Exactly. I think it's one of those wanna-believe things popularized in the foolish book Rare Earth, but then again, there are plenty of people who claim that any rock that may fall from space will burn up in the atmosphere of the Earth.

[EvilCapitalist]

Lol!

[Jeff Chandler]

For wiping out the Klingons?

[SpaceBar]

Scientists, and in this case presumably an astrophysicist, sound so lame when they try to play philosopher but didn't even stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night. Anyone with an inkling of classical mechanics knows that Jupiter adds mass to the solar system and consequently makes the latter that much more susceptible to attracting debris, comets, asteroids etc. It's just common sense. Bringing the ‘sniper’ thing into it is just plain nonsense.

[Seruzawa]

Silly. You’re supposed to give them more money.

[SunkenCiv]

I don't think people like that scientist, who rely on data and physics, care whether you take them seriously or not.