Comment on Size Comparison: Pluto and Australia
youngalfred@lemm.ee 5 weeks agoDo you mean the Trojans? They’re excluded from the mass calculation of ‘clearing the neighbourhood’ because they’re in a resonant orbit - their orbit is a consequence of Jupiter’s mass.
toast@retrolemmy.com 5 weeks ago
I don’t know. I don’t think we should make excuses for Jupiter just because of its size. Pluto’s doing the best it can. Could any of us do any better, so far out from the sun?
youngalfred@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
Jupiter does throw its weight around a bit too much.
toast@retrolemmy.com 5 weeks ago
Thanks to your comments, I went looking at more about Jupiter’s influence on us and read that most of the other planets are more in line with Jupiter’s orbital plane than the Sun’s equatorial plane (which sounds impressive, but maybe only makes complete sense since the planets would have all initially formed from the same disk). Anyway, thanks
youngalfred@lemm.ee 5 weeks ago
That’s really interesting!
I just discovered a theory about the cause of the ‘late heavy bombardment’, which is thought to have delivered water to earth via comets.
Essentially the gas giants all orbited much closer, but Jupiter and Saturn got into resonance and flung Uranus and Neptune way out (and Saturn too). Uranus and Neptune flew out into the path of a heap of ice, and their gravity pulled the ice into an orbit that collided with the terrestrial planets.
leftzero@lemmynsfw.com 5 weeks ago
No kidding. The Sun - Jupiter barycentre is outside the Sun.
Murdoc@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
Jupiter was declared too big to fail.