What if Jupiter's 79 moons
weren't gravitationally bound to Jupiter?
What if they became rogue objects
orbiting on their own
paths around the Sun?
Jupiter is the largest planet
in our Solar System.
It has a surface gravity
two and a half times the Earth.
And the planet's
gravitational pull,
combined with its great
distance from the Sun,
are two of the reasons
why Jupiter has so many moons.
These moons range
in size from the smallest, S/2010 J 2,
to the largest, Ganymede.
It is larger than the planet Mercury.
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Don't orbit this deal too long, if you know what I mean.
It won't last forever.
And maybe, neither will Earth if we scattered Jupiter's moons across the Solar System.
Get some popcorn, this is getting good.
Another of Jupiter's moons, Europa,
is about the size of our own Moon.
And both Europa and Ganymede
could have oceans of liquid water frozen
beneath an icy surface.
So if Europa and all the other
moons abandoned their orbits,
what would they become?
How about hot, hellish rocks
on a deadly collision
course with the Earth?
While there's no exact
definition of a moon,
experts say that it's an object
that orbits a planet or dwarf planet.
So the moment Jupiter's moons
leave their orbits,
they would stop being moons
and become something else.
If the larger moons,
like Ganymede, Callisto
or Europa, gravitated toward the Sun,
they could end up in the habitable
zone of our Solar System.
This is the range within
0.9 to 1.2 AU of our Sun.
That's where the Earth is residing.
Here, conditions are possible
for liquid water to exist.
And possibly life too.
So if any of these moons settled
into stable orbits
within this so-called Goldilocks zone,
you could catch the first glimpses
of extraterrestrial life
in our Solar System.
Just give it a billion years.
But if these moons
continued on their rogue orbital paths,
they would likely end up being too cold
or too hot
to have conditions to support life.
The ice that covers
these moons
would reflect sunlight into space.
That means the rogue moons
would have a high albedo.
This would create a vicious
cooling cycle
as the sunlight would reflect instead
of heating the icy surface of the moons.
That means instead of the ice melting,
more ice would form,
which would lead to more cooling
and more ice.
And so on.
On the other hand, there could be
an equally unstable warming cycle.
Water vapor
is a greenhouse gas
that traps heat in the atmosphere.
Just as carbon dioxide does on Earth.
The hotter the planet,
the more water would evaporate.
That would lead to more water vapor
and more heat.
But more on that in a minute.
Jupiter's former moons would require
10 to 40% more sunlight than the Earth
in order to not become icy snowglobes
wandering the Solar System.
Plus, the help of other greenhouse gases
like carbon dioxide.
And maybe some volcanic eruptions.
But too much help
and that rapid warming effect
could kick in,
leaving the former moons
hot and uninhabitable.
Then what?
Well, now you'd better start to worry.
These 79 rogue objects
could end up on a collision
course with us.
At 2 km (1.2 mi) wide,
the smallest moon, S/2010 J 2,
would cause damage
wherever it collided.
But if any of the larger moons hit
the Earth, you'd be doomed.
Scientists say that if an object
with a width of 96 km (60 mi)
collided with us,
it would wipe out all life on Earth.
And sorry to say,
Jupiter has many moons
that meet this deadly criterion.
Your only hope would be that
our planet could potentially catch one
or more of the moons
in our gravitational pull.
But that hope would be short-lived.
Life on our planet
would become difficult.
Or impossible.
Higher tides would render
the coastal regions uninhabitable.
You'd experience massive
and more frequent tsunamis,
earthquakes
and volcanic eruptions.
These eruptions would spew out dust
and toxic gases
that would block out sunlight.
But on the bright side,
you'd now have two or more beautiful
moons in the night sky to admire.
But uh oh,
is that really big one coming closer?
Do you think it could
knock us off our orbit?
Well, that sounds like a story
for another WHAT IF.