• zedgeist@lemmy.worldEnglish
    18·
    18 hours ago

    Why isn’t the most influential planet Jupiter? That’s the obvious answer. Saturn maybe second. Their gravity wells did more than any other planet to influence the other planets in the system…

    And wtf is Neptune doing in second place. Neptune doesn’t do shit.

    • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      8 hours ago

      And wtf is Neptune doing in second place.

      Pluto and the Kuiper belt.

      Note that Saturn is relatively close to Jupiter, while Neptune is far from any other large planets. So while it is smaller, it dominates a much larger part of the solar system.

    • Findus_Falke@feddit.orgEnglish
      2·
      10 hours ago

      Yeah you’re right. From top to bottom it should be Jupiter - Saturn - (whatever planet(s) was/were there before there was the asteroid belt)

      Edit: corrected my German habitual capitalization

      • Findus_Falke@feddit.orgEnglish
        1·
        9 hours ago

        Addendum: I just found out about orbital resonance and my mind is blown. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_resonance

        Also, the “lost planet(s)” i mentioned was a theory I liked as a kid. I know actual science suggests it is a cloud of material that was never even able to form a planet mainly because of Jupiters gravitational influence. But I still like it as a fantasy story.

  • jolEnglish
    11·
    21 hours ago

    I don’t get it. People think of Mars as particularly incluencial in the formation of the solar system?.. But they should of venus instead?

    • Caveman@lemmy.worldEnglish
      31·
      17 hours ago

      Venus has CO2 air at 50km at same pressure as earth and has good protection from radiation. You could make tons of blimps, heat them up with solar energy to float make a small science colony.

      Downside is that it’s very weight limited because landing on a surface full of sulfuric acid is hard. The challenges are still there and Venus has it’s challenges but you could have people running around with oxygen tanks instead of space suits.