2008/06/30 by J. Horner, Jonathan Horner, Barrie W. Jones +1 · 1 voice · 5 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Planetary Science and Exploration #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s1473550408004187
published as International Journal of Astrobiology, vol. 7, parts 3&4, 251-261 (2008) · 34 pages, 15 Figures
openalex publication_date 2008/07/23 · arxiv created 2009/01/14 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Abstract The asteroids are a major source of potential impactors on the Earth today. It has long been assumed that the giant planet Jupiter acts as a shield, significantly lowering the impact rate on the Earth from both cometary and asteroidal bodies. Such shielding, it is claimed, enabled the development and evolution of life in a collisional environment, which is not overly hostile. The reduced frequency of impacts, and of related mass extinctions, would have allowed life the time to thrive, where it would otherwise have been suppressed. However, in the past, little work has been carried out to examine the validity of this idea. In the first of several papers, we examine the degree to which the impact risk resulting from a population representative of the asteroids is enhanced or reduced by the presence of a giant planet, in an attempt to understand fully the impact regime under which life on Earth developed. Our results show that the situation is far less clear cut that has previously been assumed, that is, the presence of a giant planet can act to enhance the impact rate of asteroids on the Earth significantly.