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BeepBlipBlapBloop t1_j7urswd wrote

I'm not exactly sure what you're looking for here. The moons just exist because of the physical realities of gravitational influence.

There's no reason for it beyond that.

Earth isn't livable because of the moon. The moon just helps. It doesn't mean that any planet with a moon can support life.

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OnlyMortal666 t1_j7v9nlj wrote

I’d offer that our Moon had been critical in our evolution and, importantly, biology.

Tides mix up the hydrocarbons.

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justa33 t1_j7vfxpr wrote

you mix up the hydrocarbons ! !

i don’t know why i felt compelled to say that

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OnlyMortal666 t1_j7vg2uq wrote

stirs faster

Damn hydrocarbons won’t stay in the soap bubbles!

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GaudExMachina t1_j7vgise wrote

Id point out that the event that formed our moon would erase out existence. So let's just hope we don't get 12 more.

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nsfwtttt t1_j7vlpg0 wrote

Yeah which means we evolved to fit the moon, the moon wasn’t created for our benefit.

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Revolutionary_Lock86 t1_j7vc5rs wrote

Yeah but there is no thought process or plan… it sounds like you guys are arguing why the solar system decided to get many moons. Cause and effect… that’s it. The universe is incredibly simple.

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slickhedstrong t1_j7vf3la wrote

the why doesn't need a cognitive or narrative motivation here.

why are volcanoes important to hawaii? because without them there'd be no hawaii. a fortunate random circumstance.

likewise, jupiter flexing the orbit of so many roaming bodies means we are offered a mild protection from more potentially dangerous objects flying around.

that's why jupiter's tendency to pull moons is important to earth. even if the why is ambient.

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OnlyMortal666 t1_j7vfr45 wrote

What do you mean thought process or plan? There isn’t a deity.

Of note is that we’re obviously under the right conditions that an ape can look up at the sky and wonder. That’s random but we seemingly won the lottery.

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magnitudearhole t1_j7vkm22 wrote

Tide zone is a crucial evolutionary niche for sea creatures to become land adapted too

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funkysquigger t1_j7v1jhv wrote

The moon also does not offer much protection against asteroid impacts to earth, which is what I thought they were going for.

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Senrakdaemon t1_j7v7atn wrote

Really? I thought I read somewhere in grade school it helps, maybe it was jupiter

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DeafnotDeath t1_j7v9xhk wrote

Yes, it’s Jupiter. Earth would probably be uninhabitable if not for Jupiter sucking up enormous amounts of asteroids away from us

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floatingsaltmine t1_j7vfm3c wrote

That theory has been debunked. Jupiter hurls as many asteroid into the inner solar system as it pulls them in to crash into Jupiter or flings them out of the solar system entirely. It's a zero sum game for Earth.

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blaster151 t1_j7vr0cb wrote

Is there a source for this debunking?

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floatingsaltmine t1_j7w0s4d wrote

https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/does-jupiter-really-protect-us-from-cosmic-impacts/

Granted it's not the most sophisticated article and it seems to be behind a paywall. I learned about it in a Crash Course Astronomy episode about the Jovian Moons on Youtube.

This article here found that there would have been significantly fewer impacts on Earth without a Jupiter-mass planet, but several times more if Jupiter had the mass of Saturn. It also depends on the class of bodies (asteroids, short-period comets, long-period comets): https://spaceaustralia.com/feature/jupiters-complicated-relationship-life-earth

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Carp8DM t1_j7vanqi wrote

You're not wrong.

While Jupiter keeps the asteroid belt in check, the moon keeps many asteroids that would normally hit us from missing just barely.

In fact, just last month we had a near earth orbit of a pretty large asteriod. The moon's orbit and gravitational pull ensured the asteriod didn't come strait at us.

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[deleted] OP t1_j7vi10d wrote

[deleted]

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Carp8DM t1_j7vizxa wrote

I mean, apparently not?

Think about it... all the shit that was gonna hit the Earth... Kinda already has.

More profoundly...

Most of the shit that was about to hit the Earth, got pulled into the moon. Look at all them craters.

So what's left? A bunch of shit. But a bunch of shit that isn't gonna hit either of us. It's almost like delayed gratification, if you think about it.

The Earth/Moon busted eachother up. Then they both got busted up for millions of years.... Untill eventually there was nothing left...

And here we are.

The calm result of a chaotic evolution of astrological impacts.

It's kinda beautiful, if you think about it.

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quantumtwit t1_j7vowt8 wrote

> Most of the shit that was about to hit the Earth, got pulled into the moon. Look at all them craters.

The earth has been hit by far more "shit" than the moon on account it being much bigger than the moon. We just don't see most of them due to earth having tectonic plates floating on liquid magma and the surface being constantly subsumed into it plus geological forces constantly eroding the surface.

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[deleted] OP t1_j7vktzc wrote

[deleted]

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Carp8DM t1_j7vll11 wrote

> I’d love to see a simulation of a million random trajectories and see a breakdown of results.

Uh... You are on the internet... figure it out.

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Maverick_1882 t1_j7vfban wrote

I did see there was an article about the new moons of Jupiter, but didn’t read it. Do we name the moons? If so, who gets the task? Who keeps track of the names?

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Deep_BrownEyes t1_j7vjufc wrote

The moon definitely helps support live on earth. On other planets they can kind of absorb asteroids that would otherwise hit the planet. But there's no reason or importance to it, moons are just an inevitability of any object with sufficient gravity. Planets are basically just the suns moons

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ExtonGuy t1_j7urqrp wrote

Moons are important to solar system astronomers. The more moons a planet has, the more graduate students have a topic for their PhD studies. You wouldn't want a bunch of unemployed astronomers, would you?

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Tacticool_Hotdog t1_j7ut2bb wrote

And more important people/deities/whatever get their names in the sky, which is kind of nice I guess.

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RightRevJake t1_j7v1j9n wrote

Things in space don't happen because they're "important." What does it mean for something to be "important" in this context?

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jmens14 t1_j7us2j4 wrote

For Jupiter the moons aren’t a factor in why it’s not habitable. A far more glaring and problematic issue is the fact that there is no solid surface. Jupiter is a gaseous planet. Even if there were a surface to stand on, the pressure of the atmosphere would crush you and everything else instantaneously.

One importance of finding more moons is that each one has some possibility of having life. Another is that any discovery has the possibility of revealing some new fact about out universe that we didn’t previously know. Maybe new elements? Who knows. That’s the point of looking.

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MuskularChicken t1_j7ush5b wrote

It would actually be cool to live on a Jupiter moon and see Jupiter in the sky covering 1/4 of it.

I know diatances are way too big and Jupiter is still small seen from the moons but still

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Shotgunsamurai42 t1_j7uxit8 wrote

I too wish to live on a moon orbiting a gas giant.

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100FootWallOfFog t1_j7v0qtz wrote

I mean, we live in a planet orbiting a gas giant that just happened to have achieved fusion. So it's not that far fetched

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Carp8DM t1_j7vbh9s wrote

Do you know if Jupiter gives off any "heat"? Is it possible that Jupiter, though not creating fusion actually can result in a moon that has enough energy within the Jovian system to create a satellite that can result in temperatures that are conducive to life.

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100FootWallOfFog t1_j7vexi4 wrote

I believe the moon Io experiences enough gravitational influence that it keeps it's core molten

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inventionnerd t1_j7vcdy2 wrote

Tidal heating is a thing. Jupiter does do a bit of that to it's moons but it's moons also do that to each other.

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GaudExMachina t1_j7vhgw1 wrote

Apparently per random internet searching, Jupiter gives off about twice as much energy as it absorbs from the sun.

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THCarlisle t1_j7v6b1x wrote

The radiation belts of Jupiter make living on its moons no fun at all! Not to mention it’s strong gravity stretches and pulls everything

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blaster151 t1_j7vc4ex wrote

At closest approach, I wonder how high you'd have to launch/propel something for it to leave the gravity well of your tiny moon and be sucked into the terrifying vortex of the gas giant. (Come to think of it, how weak would gravity seem on a moon no more than a couple of miles across? How high would you be able to jump and how long would it take to float back down? The mind boggles!)

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GaudExMachina t1_j7vhvvz wrote

>How high would you be able to jump and how long would it take to float back down?

Im more interested in thinking about the difference between jumping from the far side of that moon, or from a point along the plane perpendicular to Jupiters acceleration.

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Educational_Ebb7175 t1_j7vlrud wrote

"Caution: Jumping more than 20 feet off the ground may cause you to cross out of Io's orbit and into Jupiter's, and you will never land on Io again."

That'd be a world without high jump events.

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papabass89 t1_j7utazn wrote

The higher Moons Per Solar System (or MPSS), the more powerful the solar system is. Basic stuff.

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Kveldwulf t1_j7uronl wrote

Actually, as far as I know, having a gas giant the size of Jupiter in our solar system is a somewhat rare phenomenon in the galaxy. Scientists have posited that it may make our solar system more likely to sustain life because large asteroids, and other celestial bodies that could easily lead to extinction-level events, are caught in Jupiter's gravity well. Jupiter is the shield for the inner part of the solar system.

Edit: typo in the final sentence.

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GiraffeandZebra t1_j7uvg1g wrote

I thought it not that a gas giant like Jupiter was unusual, but that gas giants like Jupiter are usually in much closer orbits. That's how it acts as a shield of sorts for us, whereas many other observed systems have their huge gas giants in close orbits.

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GhostAspect_ t1_j7v0epb wrote

Yeah, gaseous planets like Jupiter aren't too uncommon, it's just its distance from the Sun that is. As planets like those like to migrate to weeklong orbits for some reason, But because of Saturn (or maybe not, we don't know for sure) Jupiter never migrated that far into the Solar System.

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VitaminPb t1_j7v435z wrote

I suspect the reason we see gas giants closer to suns is observational bias. Most exoplanets found so far are from transit of a sun which is more frequent for short orbital periods and much more noticeable in the short observation time we have had so far.

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Hustler-1 t1_j7ut83w wrote

More like a big broom vs a shield. Jupiters gravity could direct a rock towards Earth just as well it could divert one.

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HowsTheBeef t1_j7vored wrote

Not really, because of the size and mass of Jupiter it will trap any smaller asteroids in its gravitational well. Additionally, because it has a more distant orbit of the sun than the earth does, most asteroids will be redirected away from the inner orbits if they don't get trapped.

Think of it like playing mini golf ⛳️ and hitting through a windmill. Except the windmill blades and your ball are strong magnets. And the hole is about the size of a puckered butthole. You have unlimited balls but you can't look where you're shooting.

This analogy went off the rails but the point is Jupiter is a very good bouncer for the earth club.

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Hustler-1 t1_j7vs0ex wrote

Jupiters orbital velocity around the sun is added to any object entering its sphere of influence. Its how gravitational sling shots are done on spacecraft. Asteroids will absolutely do the same thing. They'll be either ejected into a higher orbit around the sun or a lower orbit based on their entry trajectory. Whatever is trapped by Jupiter has been trapped for awhile and was the remnant of its creation.

However if a new object is entering and doesnt hit Jupiter itself or a moon it will be ejected back out of the system with greater energy relative to Jupiter. Lagrange points are the closest things to actual gravitational traps.

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HowsTheBeef t1_j7vsi6j wrote

Then why Jupiter got so many moons? Can't imagine it's spitting them out from the core

I guess I count falling into Jupiter as getting trapped

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Hustler-1 t1_j7vtfwj wrote

They've been there since the beginning. It probably has thousands of moons. Hell Jupiter has a ring! Its just very faint. The moons that have been discovered as of late are larger and more significant then a small rock. So they get catalogued.

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HowsTheBeef t1_j7vuil6 wrote

"The beginning" wtf you talking about God put them there? It's definitely been accumulating rocks and debris since the beginning, slowly creating and collecting moons from trapped debris. Having a big gravity well in your solar system collects lots of space rocks that would otherwise have a chance of hitting a planet

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Hustler-1 t1_j7vxm1q wrote

In a way yeah you could say God put them there. Jupiter, the planets, our entire solar system came from a swirling cloud of gas and debris that overtime condensed down into the planets we know today. That is why they are all orbiting the same direction and are mostly on the same planes of orbit. Jupiter has indeed been collecting debris overtime. But anything that doesnt strike the planet gets ejected back out.

I suppose even broom is not quite right. Sheppard would be more fitting. Jupiter, Saturn. All the gas giants are what is responsible for stability. They have given our solar system the stability to allow for life on Earth.

Edit: Just to be clear. Moons and objects can be caught into orbits around other planets but it's usually the result of multiple gravitational influences not just one big gravity well. Then there's other instances like striking other objects. Objects breaking apart and such.

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deadbananawalking t1_j7uxssn wrote

"Social system"

Well I'm glad to know the planets have a way of talking, I'm sure it gets awful lonely out there lol

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Carp8DM t1_j7uzpka wrote

Carl Sagan and other well loved astrologists have considered that Jupiter is a proto-star.

And then, can you imagine the possibilities!!

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Pty_Rick t1_j7uyifo wrote

how is that possible ? with 100 billion stars just in our galaxy alone, stating that a gas giant is rare doesn t sound correct. did we check all 100 b systems and validated that all planets within?

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Kveldwulf t1_j7v2hkz wrote

"Somewhat rare." Also, as other commenters have mentioned. It's not so much the size of Jupiter but the size and the location of Jupiter that is unusual.

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eyadGamingExtreme t1_j7v0shm wrote

Last time I checked we have only discovered a couple thousand exoplanets

Edit: Google says 5,307

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Demented_J_9 t1_j7utpdy wrote

Jupe's just carrying extra moons so that it could lend us if our moon goes rogue. Pretty simple science stuff.🫠

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Tacticool_Hotdog t1_j7usy9v wrote

Jupites is a gas giant. Makes it pretty unlikely to develop and sustain life.

You should maybe google what makes a planet liveable first, and you'll notice that the similarities of Jupiter and Earth end pretty much at both having at least one moon and they orbit a star like Sol.

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[deleted] OP t1_j7v043z wrote

[removed]

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moeggz t1_j7vi3l2 wrote

There’s no need to talk like that in this subreddit. Please stay respectful of others.

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agate_ t1_j7ut646 wrote

We're interested in seeing what's in our solar system because we're curious about it. Some solar system discoveries may have important things to tell us about the formation of the Earth and the development of life on it and beyond, but frankly the number of small moons of Jupiter isn't "important", except that it satisfies our curiosity.

Which is the most important thing of all.

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Additional_Share_551 t1_j7v96in wrote

Things don't exist because they're important, they just do. You can't apply philosophy to objects existing.

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Marchello_E t1_j7uzjvr wrote

The moons are just there, there's no precalculated purpose. It's left-over rubble that didn't make it to form a planet. Or it was a planet but now destroyed. Or it was part of another solar system, but no longer there.

There are many aspects that makes a planet livable. Jupiter's atmosphere is not one of them. Most is gaseous.

Our moon was formed by the rubble of a collision with another planet. This collision itself made things surface from the planetary core that would not be there without that collision, like Iron. It is likely that it also caused the tilt creating seasonal variation, while the Moon itself is causing a slightly more frequent variation in the form of tides and perhaps affecting tectonic plates. All these variations and stirring of material may be the cause of live.

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BassWingerC-137 t1_j7v0rhp wrote

The universe/galaxy/solar system isn't designed by a committee.. There isn't some "importance" these features were introduced to achieve. They are where they are because the physics work that way. Lot of dust floating around, collects and becomes rocks which develop large gravity wells due to their collective mass. That gravity in turn pulls more towards it, or away from it as other gravity wells make their presence felt. Over billions and billions of years things start to form and develop a pattern once the initial chaos thins the herd of start dust everywhere. Orbits fight gravity, moons are a thing. Maybe two moons hit each other and shatter, which over eons forms rings which over more eons will fall into the planet they orbit.... there's no "design" importance to any of these things. But, other things can be side effects of them. It's not the other way around though.

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BalleaBlanc t1_j7uza5e wrote

Does it have to be important ? It is what it is, that is important and what we will learn about it.

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BuldopSanchez t1_j7vcl05 wrote

Why tag 'importance'? Nature probably doesn't signify importance so much as it does the natural way things happen. Gravity attracts, velocity and trajectory come into play and an object gets trapped into a dance with these three playing the beat and harmony.

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Toebean_Farmer t1_j7uysnh wrote

Moons aren’t very special, they’re just debris that’s been captured by the gravity of a planet. Earths moon doesn’t “make earth livable” it makes earth more livable, and it’s not that important to life as we know it.

Jupiter has many moons surrounding it because it’s the second largest (in both size and (more importantly) mass) object in our solar system, so many things are captured by its gravity. Many of these satellites (not like our man-made satellites, simply something that orbits a planet) are large and -importantly- reflective. When moons are highly reflective, we have a much easier time spotting them because they shine with the sun’s light. However, smaller and less reflective satellites are much harder to discover.

Finding these Jupiter moons is less about the moons themselves, but instead the means in which we were able to detect them. More sensitive tools and techniques are being developed, leading to more discoveries day after day.

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halfanothersdozen t1_j7uwkt9 wrote

There's a million reasons why earth is habitable and nothing else is. In fact in all that we have been able to observe the Earth is the only place with the exact perfect conditions to support life. Change any of those things a little bit and the earth is dead. So it's not just moons.

Jupiter has a lot of moons because Jupiter is huge and that gravity captures a lot of rocks flying through space. It's also incredibly radioactive and any living thing near Jupiter would be killed pretty quickly from radiation.

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rBjorn t1_j7uxgjm wrote

Most moons around here are just potato-shaped rocks, slightly larger than average. When they are massive enough to be spherical, now we are talking.

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anchorsawaypeeko t1_j7uz2ig wrote

Moon = Equal habitable planet. Moons are a result of gravitational pull from a celestial body. Jupiter has more mass, this more gravity and more moons.

Earth is habitable due to many reasons. Perfect distance from the sun, it isn’t constantly hit by asteroids, it has an iron core which creates a magnetic field which helps deflect cosmic rays, it has a perfectly blended atmosphere to trap some green house gasses and make us nice and warm but not too warm, so on and so forth.

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49cadillac t1_j7uz2ln wrote

Because it's a gas giant with no terrestrial surface, gravity that will crush you like a beverage can, and temperatures that will freeze you almost instantly.

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1derfool t1_j7v47m6 wrote

Im just waiting for my crypto to moon, dont care if Jupiter gets 50 more moons lol. But in all honesty, bless the Sun and Jupiter, who pull almost all of the huge asteroids towards them and save us from it :)

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cai_85 t1_j7v5tfz wrote

Jupiter isn't in the habitable zone of our solar system. I'd say that's the crucial factor. It's also made of gas.

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qetral t1_j7v5uan wrote

the solar system is hoarding moons - it has a real problem

Seriously though, most moons exist because they got trapped. It's not that they're being formed by the planet on any needed basis unless that planet had something collide with it and a moon was formed that way (like earth). So I'm not entirely certain there really is an importance to having so many moons. It just happened that way over time.

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mikevago t1_j7v6doz wrote

So many moons compared to what? We don't really have any idea how many moons other solar systems' planets have, because they're generally too small to detect. (Most of the exoplanets we've discovered are gas giants, because they're the easiest to spot)

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Mister_Moho t1_j7v98ld wrote

The moons just happen to be there, not for any reason. It's just cool to document them so we can have a better understanding of the natural world.

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BlueFox5 t1_j7vabm6 wrote

What Big Science doesn’t want you to know is that moons are actually planet eggs. Jupiter is just the best at making eggs. We haven’t had any new hatchling planets in our solar system because of Hallie the space snake and others that come by and gobble them up before they hatch.

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blaster151 t1_j7vbl8t wrote

Okay, dumb question . . . with that many moons in that many different orbits, how can none of them pull another out of orbit and cause collisions (that we would presumably detect from Earth)?

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Revolutionary_Lock86 t1_j7vbysz wrote

Importance??? We make things important, universe just do. This is the first time I’ve someone humanizing the solar system.

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logan5-jessica6 t1_j7vd5p0 wrote

Justifies the huge grants those labs received.

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PandaEven3982 t1_j7vdxfl wrote

We just don't yet know. About distribution of moons, etc.

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slickhedstrong t1_j7velg7 wrote

it keeps pulling large potentially threatening rocks out of the solar system's roster of large potentially threatening rocks

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Pharaohofduels t1_j7vem1u wrote

Jupiters and other planets in the wrong place in relation to the sun to be habitable.

The Goldilocks position is a thing where you have to be just right, not to close or far away from the sun to be habitable

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Immelmaneuver t1_j7vhgw9 wrote

Gas Giants are the Roomba Floor Vacuums of Solar Systems. They catch stuff and hold onto it via being big huge gravity wells, but are gaseous except for relatively small metallic cores. Thus, lots moons but not suitable for human life.

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jwarper t1_j7vhuyt wrote

I think your question is quite broad and is a combination of answers:

  1. It takes a lot of effort to become a moon! Many likely formed from catastrophic planetary events that took place over billions of years. Some likely got caught in the gravitational pull of a planet eventually end up crashing into it. The moons we see now have attained relatively stable orbits, allowing them to survive.
  2. Moons being much smaller than planets like Jupiter, resulted in them being discovered much later in human history. As you can see, new ones are still being discovered! These are new things to study! Exciting!
  3. Our own moon is much larger compared to our own planet, and played a major role in how life developed over time. As mentioned, its own gravitational pull has influenced the earth enough to moderate its own orbit/spin/wobble. Its gravitational forces generate tides and help power circadian development of all life on earth! Evolution on earth is generally powered by the ebbs and flows of changes caused by the moon , spin/orbit of the earth, and gravity (among other things).
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TheRoadsMustRoll t1_j7vk3mj wrote

it isn't terribly important unless you're into solar system discoveries.

if you're into solar system discoveries then its cool. that's all.

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Timely-Youth-9074 t1_j7vk47k wrote

Jupiter acts like a giant debris magnet keep cosmic junk from smashing into Earth.

Thank Jupiter.

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simeonca t1_j7vm6r7 wrote

I mean those giant planets trap a lot of debris that would smash earth and that helps us.

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nickkom t1_j7vmlkx wrote

Asking this is like asking why it’s important for the earth to have bones.

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space-ModTeam t1_j7vn1nw wrote

Hello u/Hizzo21, your submission "What's the importance of our solar system having so many moons?" has been removed from r/space because:

  • Such questions should be asked in the "All space questions" thread stickied at the top of the sub.

Please read the rules in the sidebar and check r/space for duplicate submissions before posting. If you have any questions about this removal please message the r/space moderators. Thank you.

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Jabberjowls t1_j7vo38m wrote

How come I see so many posts removed from here that are VERY space based but need to be asked in a different forum? Why is it so heavily moderated and censured?

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Hustler-1 t1_j7ussx2 wrote

Our moon is crucial for Earth's life because of its relatively large size. It stabilizes Earth's rotation and provides a tide cycle. Both of which are crucial for life in terms of stability.

Jupiter and all the other gas giants have so many because they're more like remnants of their creation. Not much different than the asteroid belts. Just spare parts so to speak from the formation of the planets. So they don't do much for life. Not to mention the environment around Jupiter is incredibly hostile so even if the moons were providing something its too an extreme an environment.

Under the surface of the major moon however, well.. that's a different story.

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Puzzleheaded-Plenty1 t1_j7uvypr wrote

The moons don't really mean anything. Jupiter himself is a unique case. He's a huge lad who regularly consumes potentially Earth-destroying astroids, so praise him for that. Also, those moons might have killed Earth before humans even existed. The huge lad in our backyard is therefore very appreciated.

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monkey_Lost-dad t1_j7uxr3p wrote

Can someone help me which type of telescope should i buy i am just casual no dslr and a tight budget

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