There are many ways that the majority of life on Earth can be wiped out from natural catastrophes
to nuclear war the beings who live on this planet are at the whims of far more powerful
and destructive powers that exist both here on Earth and off of it a massive impact from
a cosmic traveler could spell cataclysmic times for most of the species we share a home with and
scientists are now discovering that one of our planetary neighbors may be helping these
Universal wrecking balls find their way to Earth the solar system acts as a kind of pinball machine
65 million years ago the world looked a lot different with massive flora and fauna ruled
by dinosaurs that dominated the majority of ecosystems on Earth but this all changed when
a massive asteroid came hurtling down to Earth causing the fifth mass extinction that our planet
had experienced since life exploded during the Cambrian explosion this asteroid impact along with
the conditions it created led to the extinction of at least 70 percent of all terrestrial species
which included everyone of the non-avian Dinosaurs the asteroid measured more than 10 kilometers six
miles and left the planets with a huge scar called the chicksalub crater whose diameter stretches for
at least 150 kilometers nearly 100 miles for scientists studying this event understanding
when another one of these asteroids will strike has been a major goal and for quite a while many
of these researchers have been looking to the largest planet in our Solar System Jupiter as
one of the key reasons our planet has not experienced another giant asteroid impact
since that time but new information is causing many to flip that idea completely on its head
Jupiter was the first planet that an astronomer witnessed being struck by an asteroid back in
1690 by Giovanni Cassini since then astronomers have been able to watch the gas giant get pelted
with asteroids and have calculated that it experiences asteroid impact at a rate
10,000 times more frequently than the earth one of these impacts they witnessed the comet
Shoemaker Levy 9 impact taught them a great deal about these events when they watched a
two to five kilometer wide object approaching Jupiter be torn by its tidal forces into 21
pieces before striking the planet and scarring it for months now researchers believe that an
impact of this magnitude occurs on the Jovian surface at least once every 500
to 1000 years and because these events are spread out over millions of years on Earth
it would make sense to conclude that Jupiter seems to be attracting these asteroids which
helps reduce the chances that one of them strikes the Earth right new information though is showing
scientists that this might not be the case and in fact Jupiter might have the exact opposite effect
going back to the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs astronomers now theorize that
it may not have been just a simple asteroid but instead was a singular piece that was broken off
of a much larger Cosmic body from far out in the solar system and Jupiter may be responsible for
taking it off of its harmless path onto a course that ends with an impact with the earth a team of
Harvard researchers used statistical analysis as well as gravitational simulations to uncover that
the Chicxulub asteroid most likely originated in the Oort Cloud the sphere of debris out at
the edge of this solar system their simulations show that Jupiter bumped this asteroid off of
its current course and sent its slingshotting around the Sun before slamming it into current
day Yucatan Peninsula and causing apocalyptic events on Earth after the asteroids struck the
earth a series of natural disasters cascaded throughout the globe a massive tsunami smashed
into the shores of the ancient continents earthquakes throughout the local region
and a thick cloud of dust and debris that would drastically alter the climate leading to much more
death than Extinction than the simple violent impact if another asteroid of that size was to
impact the Earth the full scale of the devastation and destruction would be hard to imagine or model
it would no doubt lead to another major shift in global climate as well as catastrophic events near
the impact site but is this going to happen and if it does is there someone we can blame
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the answer to that question is most likely yes for centuries astronomers have believed that Jupiter's
huge gravitational force essentially shepherds asteroids around keeping them far from the inner
planets and while research has shown Jupiter does offer some protection from some of the asteroids
that it has contained within the 5,000 strong Hilda group they have seen objects from the
Oort Cloud come slingshotting around the Sun breaking up the asteroids or comets and sending
them back to the outer reaches now they know that Jupiter is responsible for many of these
objects being sent on their Sun grazing Journey they have become the focus for some astronomers
studies over the last few years look into the properties of the gas giant including its mass
orbital eccentricity and position in relation to the other planets to see how they may affect
asteroid impacts with earth based on their models a planet in Jupiter's position with a mass around
Saturns would cause the largest number of impacts and to the surprise of many the situation which
led to the least amount of asteroid impacts occurred when Jupiter was gone in fact if
Jupiter was not around more than 70 percent of all asteroid impacts with Earth would not have
occurred including the Chicxulub asteroid imagine how different the Earth would be if the fifth mass
extinction never occurred what kind of planet would it be but in the solar system we live in,
Jupiter does exist, and it will no doubt be sending more asteroids around the Sun and
on a collision course with the Earth so how can we be ready to protect ourselves
for a number of years NASA and other space agencies around the globe have been trying
to develop a reliable way to alter the course of comets and asteroids in case they start on
a course Bound for the Earth in just the last year NASA's double asteroid redirection test
or DART completed its mission to crash into an asteroid to measure its effects the team
chose the asteroid Dimorphous as the prime target because it has a fairly well-known orbit around
its large apparent asteroid Didimus. The Hubble telescope was able to watch as the craft made
its Final Approach an impact into the asteroid resulting in a cloud of debris flying off of
the surface after analysis NASA has been able to confirm that they did in fact alter the course of
Dimorphos showing that the world does have the technology available to redirect an asteroid on
the Earth's pass to avoid an apocalyptic event there is no telling when another asteroid will
be heading directly for us an object floating nearby Jupiter right now may have already been
set on a path that will eventually lead it to earth based on the available evidence an
asteroid impact of this magnitude only occurs once every 100 million years but other smaller
asteroids can still cause major damage and occur much more frequently a five kilometer asteroid
impacts the Earth about once every 20 million years and one kilometer asteroids every 500,000
so the earth needs to be ready to jump into action to take care if any asteroid that falls into our
path thanks for watching are you worried about an impact from a cosmic traveler or
do you think that the scientific Community will be able to come together and save the
planet let us know in the comments below and as always see you next time on Matter