Found in 1610 by Galileo Galilei, Jupiter is one of the most debated planet among scientists. Due to large mass and size it was among the first moon that was observed by Galileo.

 

Coming back to 21st century, humans have made great progress in gaining better knowledge about the 'Gas Giant' and have come to a very brain-teasing question that "Is Jupiter protecting Earth or putting it into harm?"

Scientists had their share of points, but I'll share what I think after reading numerous articles on this topic.

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Jupiter is our Friend "sometimes". Many scientists believe that Earth is still habitable because of Jupiter, due to its gravity, it protects the Earth from long-period comets. Jupiter’s gravity is thought to sling most of these fast-moving ice balls out of the solar system before they can get close to Earth. So long-period comets are thought to strike Earth only on very long timescales of millions or tens of millions of years. Without Jupiter nearby, long-period comets would collide with our planet much more frequently.

In addition, in recent decades, astronomers have been able to see signs of comets that have crashed into Jupiter. There was Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 in 1994. And, in 2009, astronomers observed a dark gash in one side of the giant planet, likely caused by a comet.

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But Jupiter creates both good and bad conditions for earthly life. Consider that its powerful gravity prevented space rocks orbiting near it from coalescing into a planet, and that’s why our solar system today has an asteroid belt, consisting of hundreds of thousands of small flying chunks of debris.

Today, Jupiter’s gravity continues to affect the asteroids – only now it nudges some asteroids toward the sun, where they have the possibility of colliding with Earth.

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Another interesting story dates back to the 18th century, when Comet Lexell streaked past Earth only about a million miles away.

The comet had come streaking in from the outer solar system three years earlier and passed close to Jupiter, which diverted it into a new orbit and straight toward Earth.

The comet made two passes around the sun and in 1779 again passed very close to Jupiter, which then threw it back out of the solar system.

It was as if Jupiter aimed at us and missed.

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So is Jupiter Earth’s protector? The answer is… sometimes!