Today, with advancements in science, we recognize the value and importance of other planets in the Solar System to Earth.
According to the European Space Agency, humanity has been searching for stars for a long time, with the history of astronomy tracing back to the Assyro-Babylonian civilization around 1,000 BC.
Each planet in our Solar System orbits the Sun along a specific trajectory. Currently, Earth’s orbit is very close to circular (in spatial distance) – it deviates a maximum of about 2% from the average. This relatively low level of variability allows life to develop on Earth, as our planet will never be too far or too close to the Sun. According to The Measure of Things, Earth is maintained in this orbit by the gravitational force caused by the mass of the Sun.
However, there are other massive bodies floating around our Solar System that also affect Earth’s orbit, such as Jupiter and Saturn – the two largest planets in the Milky Way, with masses 318 times and 95 times that of Earth, respectively. According to Space, these giant planets have helped position the inner planets of the Solar System in their correct locations and protect them from collisions with asteroids and other massive objects in the universe.
Jupiter – The largest planet in the Solar System.
The Vacuum Cleaners of the Solar System
Since scientists were clearly not present during the early stages of our Milky Way, they often seek evidence from other planetary systems to uncover the secrets of our own history. One thing they have discovered is that giant planets like Jupiter can attract smaller planetary bodies as they drift toward their central Sun. This has earned them the nickname “the vacuum cleaners of the Solar System”, as they suck in other planets or smaller celestial bodies they encounter.
Jupiter, although the largest planet, is not the only protector of Earth in our Solar System. In a study designed to illustrate how Earth and other planets would exist without the two largest planets of the Solar System, a NASA researcher conducted a simulation experiment using what we know about the influence of these planets.
What he found was that without Saturn, our planet would experience many more collisions with asteroids, just as it would without Jupiter.
The gravitational pull of the giant planets is believed to have prevented drifting celestial bodies in the asteroid belt from colliding with Earth and other inner planets, as well as preventing asteroids in the belt from coalescing into another planet. Jupiter can also push small celestial bodies out of the Solar System, throwing them into different orbits, according to NASA.
The Impact of Planets
Without Saturn, our planetary orbit would not be in a relatively stable cycle.
Researchers have only just begun to explore all the ways the presence of other planets impacts life on Earth. Through studying historical climate patterns on our planet, researchers published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealing more details about how Jupiter affects life on our planet.
The researchers found evidence of fluctuating lakes in sediment cores from Earth throughout its history. They then correlated this with changes in Earth’s magnetic field, indicating changes in its orbit. Due to its massive size, Jupiter’s gravitational force has been known to affect Earth’s orbit, but what researchers discovered was new – Jupiter can shift Earth’s orbit every 405,000 years. This process, which has been occurring since the time of the dinosaurs, causes more extreme seasons on Earth and is believed to be the reason behind phenomena observed in the Earth core samples used in the experiments.
In another simulation study conducted by researchers at the University of Vienna, scientists found that without Saturn, our planetary orbit would not be in a relatively stable cycle – Earth’s orbit would move approximately 10% closer to the Sun. According to New Scientist, this distance could still allow for the origin of life to arise, but it would certainly be a very different life from what we are familiar with today.
In fact, even a mere 20-degree tilt change from Saturn would cause Earth’s orbit to deviate – there would be a time of year when our planet would move closer to the Sun than Venus currently does. And if Saturn’s tilt changes by 30 degrees, our Earth could be ejected completely from the Solar System, according to New Scientist. At that distance, without the warmth of the Sun, life would no longer be viable on our blue planet.
