Question: is it true that Jupiter is protecting us from asteroids as it is a lot bigger than earth

Rosie Coates answered on 17 Mar 2014:

Jupiter is a very large, gas planet. In fact it is the largest planet in or solar system at only 1000 times smaller than the sun (compared to the earth which is 300,000 times smaller.) This means it is the second largest body in our solar system. The mass of a planet is related to the size of its gravitational pull so, as you can imagine, Jupiter’s gravity has a big impact. It is able to bend the orbits of comets and asteroids. Sometimes this works in our favour and Jupiter stops a wandering asteroid from hitting the earth, sometimes the gravity of Jupiter throws asteroids further into the solar system.

It is thought that in order for life to develop a fine balance between some asteroids and too many asteroids is necessary. Asteroids are thought to have brought water to our planet so without them there would have been no live at all. Too many asteroid hits, like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, would traumatise the planet so much that no life would be able to develop whatsoever.

So, whether Jupiter is flinging asteroids our way our kicking them out of the solar system it’s doing a very important job!