Tweak in Jupiter's orbit may help life on Earth: Study

Jupiter is not just one massive blob of gas in the Solar System. It's much more than that. Jupiter absorbs many space-rocks travelling towards the inner Solar System, the Earth's neighbourhood. This means that Jupiter may have saved us countless times. Dinosaurs got unlucky, it seems.

But now, a new study says that if Jupiter was to tweak its orbit a bit, it would increase habitability on planet Earth.

Jupiter's orbit around the Sun is almost completely circular. This is not true about other planets including Earth. Their orbits are 'eccentric', that is, they are oval-shaped. The degree to which orbit of a planet tends to assume oval shape is called eccentricity.

The eccentricity of Jupiter's orbit is low because it is nearly circular. It is quite logical to imagine that if Jupiter's orbit is tweaked in any manner, the planet with massive gravity will have an effect on orbits of other planets in the Solar System

Researchers from University of California, Riverside have published a study in which they say that if Jupiter's orbit becomes 'eccentric', it may have a positive impact on the habitability on Earth.

“Many are convinced that Earth is the epitome of a habitable planet and that any change in Jupiter’s orbit, being the massive planet it is, could only be bad for Earth,” says Pam Vervoort, lead author of the study

“We show that both assumptions are wrong.”

The study says that the change in Jupiter's orbit would change the eccentricity of orbit of the Earth. This would result in melting of ice to some extent and these regions would be more habitable.

The study has been published in The Astronomical Journal.

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