The delicate balance of
the entire Solar System
exists in a gravitational dance between planets.
Swap the orbits of two of them
and you could end up wreaking
all kinds of havoc.
The Sun and Jupiter
are the two largest objects
in our Solar System.
The gravitational forces
of these behemoths
influence each other’s movements.
And they have a big impact
on the movement
of all the other planets,
moons and asteroids
in our cosmic neighborhood.
On the inner side of this belt
is the fourth planet from the Sun
and our neighbor, Mars.
The red planet is located a mere
78 million km (49 million mi) from Earth.
That means it’s
eight times closer to us
than Jupiter is.
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun,
located at a distance
of about 778 million km (484 million mi) away.
And it’s the gas giant’s
tremendous force of gravity
that could be responsible
for the asteroid belt
separating the inner
and outer
regions of the Solar System.
So if these two planets
suddenly swapped orbits
would the millions
of rocky objects in the asteroid belt
come flying right at us?
These threats overhead would be terrifying,
but at least we’d see them coming.
You know, sometimes life throws things at you
that you're not prepared to take on.
According to a survey in 2022,
56% of Americans can't cover an unexpected bill of $1,000 or more.
Yeah, so a car problem or a health issue could send people into severe debt.
So how do we solve this problem?
Well, maybe we should give people what they need.
Cash.
Cash support goes a long way to helping
our neighbors survive day-to-day
because it gives them the tools they need
to solve their problems without judgment or conditions for assistance.
We accept social security and disability programs,
but we need new solutions to address
the growing income inequality in our society.
It's time to provide a different safety net
for low-to-moderate-income workers and families.
Let's urge lawmakers to use the tax code
to help our citizens so that they're ready to act
when the unexpected strikes.
When we provide the tools people need to survive,
the outcome is better for all of us.
Let’s start by
checking out how Mars would fare
in this orbital switcheroo.
It would now be jammed
between the gas giants,
Jupiter and Saturn.
This would put the red planet
in the uncomfortable position
of having the two biggest planets
in the Solar System
on either side of it.
It would be uncomfortable
because of those
gas giants’ gravitational pull.
But the pull would be uneven.
And Mars would suffer
a similar fate
to that of one of Jupiter’s moons, Io.
Like Io, Mars would experience
a stronger attraction
on the side facing Jupiter
compared to the side facing away.
This would stretch and compress
the rocky planet.
Mars would start to heat up
from the inside.
That’s the reason Io
is plagued by more active volcanic eruptions
than anywhere else
in the Solar System.
Place Mars
in a similar game of tug-of-war,
and the gravitational forces
could be strong enough
to reactivate a few of its own
ancient volcanoes.
Yeah, you could end up seeing lava
erupting out of Olympus Mons,
the biggest volcano in the Solar System.
Now, hopping back over to our side
of the asteroid belt,
things would be getting interesting here on Earth.
The first big change you’d notice
would be the night sky
being a little different.
Yeah, Jupiter would go from appearing
as a distant bright star
to being about 20% as large as the Moon.
Looking up on a clear night,
you could see its colorful bands and spots.
But not everything would be
swirly and pretty.
In its new real estate
right next door,
Jupiter’s gravitational impact on Earth
would be about 64 times stronger than it is now.
You know, Jupiter already
impacts us from a distance.
Every 405,000 years,
its pull, along with Venus’,
is responsible for droughts
and intense rain.
With it being this close,
the effect would be more extreme.
And the consequences deadly.
Caught between the Sun and Jupiter,
our planet would experience
cataclysmic problems with tidal bulging.
So what you once knew as a lovely,
habitable home
would transition into a volcanic hell.
And that wouldn’t
be the only hell unleashed.
With Jupiter suddenly
on the opposite side
of the asteroid belt,
all those millions of rocks
would be pulled
in new directions toward it.
And that would set more than a few
on a crash course with Earth.
The objects in the asteroid belt
range in size.
On the massive size,
there’s the dwarf planet Ceres.
It’s about 25% the size of our Moon.
And of the asteroids,
Vesta is an unwieldy
530 km (329 mi) across.
But an asteroid wouldn’t
even need to be anywhere near that large
to hit Earth and trigger the apocalypse.
A collision with one
as small as one km (0.6 mi)
could be the end for us.
If an asteroid about 10 km (6 mi) across
crashed into our planet,
it would result in the Sun
being blocked out
for a year or more.
And without sunlight,
we’d experience what’s known as impact winter.
Temperatures would drop
and photosynthesis would stop.
This would lead to the mass extinction
of plant, animal and human life.
Thanks, Jupiter.
But at least the largest asteroid
didn’t collide with Earth.
Yet.
Well, get your bunker ready,
because that’s a story for another WHAT IF.