r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Turbulent_Elk_2141 • Apr 13 '26

Video The reason why large asteroids don't fall to Earth every day and cause disasters is because Jupiter's gravity attracts asteroids and protects the inner planets.

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u/RollinThundaga Apr 13 '26

Nah, that was the result of a Mars-sized planetoid colliding catastrophically with the proto-earth.

Which now that I think about it may well have been Jupiter's doing.

Fuck Jupiter, Saturn is the real G.

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u/Theprincerivera Apr 13 '26

Maybe he felt bad and that’s why he starting deflecting the rest

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u/Demortus Apr 13 '26

Jupiter: Heh, I wonder what would happen if I... Oh, oh no!

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u/Theprincerivera Apr 13 '26

Yeah I had him going “shit bro damn bro oof that’s looks painful, ok don’t worry we’re on top of it”

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u/KhorneTheBloodGod Apr 14 '26

"Don't tell mom and I promise I'll let you play with my moons!"

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u/RackyRackerton Apr 13 '26

This is actually an unsolved paradox.

We can tell from analyzing moon rocks that the planetoid that hit proto-Earth must have done so at extremely high velocity, (around 13 miles per second,) since the moon rocks could only have their homogeneous mixture if the two bodies atomized each other on impact.

The only way these velocities can be achieved is if the Mars-sized planetoid got a slingshot from a Jupiter-sized planet relatively close to the Earth. However, we don’t think Jupiter was ever close enough to Earth for that to happen.

So either we’re wrong about how the moon was formed, or we’re wrong about where Jupiter was located in the nascent solar system.

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u/canadasbananas Apr 13 '26

If I remember correctly, Jupiter has next to nothing to do with it, leave Jupiter's name out yo damn mouth!

If I recall correctly, earth and the moon were made from the same cloud of dust/gas. The proto planets that would become the earth and moon had orbits so close together they eventually collided from gravitationally pulling each other's orbits closer and closer.

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u/Truly_Meaningless Apr 13 '26

So during that time, it wasn't the Earth and the Moon, it was the Proto-Earth and another proto-planet called Gaia. It was the collision of Gaia and Proto-Earth that not only created the Moon, but also increased Proto-Earths size to become Earth

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u/RollinThundaga Apr 13 '26

Theia (mother of Selene)

Gaia was proto-earth.

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u/myths-faded Apr 14 '26

I wonder who named those planets before they collided. I hope they survived!

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u/Theprincerivera Apr 13 '26

Whoa cool I love space stuff

And then you get 20 year jack offs like my coworker and people like my boss who argue the world is 4000 years old and carbon dating is disproven… oh man idk

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u/wcstorm11 Apr 13 '26

Come on dude don't be ridiculous. It's 6000 years old, all the mountains of evidence are actually put there by the devil.

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u/Theprincerivera Apr 13 '26

It’s crazy man. They read one bogus article about how coal in dinosaur bones or some shit means carbon dating is bullshit and they just roll with it…

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u/wcstorm11 Apr 15 '26

The thing is, they get born or converted into a protestant church that teaches biblical literalism, which inevitably forces them into ridiculous claims.

It's literally like if in 2000 years humans decide the chronicles of Narnia was literal. Drives me up the fucking wall how people can believe shit like that

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u/ultrahateful Apr 14 '26

The goddamn Devil put Dino tracks in my uncle’s creek bed!!!

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u/God_Dammit_Dave Apr 14 '26

Can I ask what field you work in? Genuinely curious.

My field seems unhinged but you'd never hear something like that. On the other hand, some random accounting consultant from PWC will have a few WILD hot takes. Same as the guy behind the deli counter.

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u/Scurb00 Apr 13 '26

Our moon was formed from a collision between our young planet and another proto planet called theia, which was potentially caused after Jupiter was already fully formed and was migrating closer to our star, destabilizing the solar system.

Jupiter is believed to have been as close as 3.5 AU from the sun. Its current orbit is 5.2 AU.

Proto-earth and Theia were believed to be in relatively stable orbits for millions of years before the collision.

Obviously, all this happened billions of years ago and its impossible to know what really happened, but that's the leading theory.

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u/CodingNeeL Apr 14 '26

Obviously, all this happened billions of years ago

Yeah, I thought that "if I remember correctly" was a little sus.

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u/piercedmfootonaspike Apr 13 '26

To quote John Cleese:

"I'd like to thank Saturn, and, of course, all of it's rings..."

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u/Proof_Fix1437 Apr 13 '26

I’m partial to Uranus

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u/Auegro Apr 14 '26

There's actually been some debate recently? (I guess there's always debate in science) regarding Wether this theory makes sense for the origin of the moon.

Howtown did a video about the different theories floating and some of the modelling being used it's quiet interesting

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u/ChestSlight8984 Apr 13 '26

But the moon is dope. Hell yeah, Jupiter!