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Does the Gravity from jupiter affects earth in any way?


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I'm a novice in astronomy, so I don't know anything about mathematics and only a few things about fisics... But I want to know if the jupiter's gravity do anything on earth, like the moon affects the tide of the oceans?

Thanks in advance!!!

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Jupiter, and all the other planets, affect the Earth slightly. Their gravity changes the orbit slightly, causes a very small contribution to tides, etc. But the size of the effects are very very small.

Yes. So far as orbits are concerned, the effect is proportional to the mass and inversely proportional to the square of the distance ... so Jupiter, which is 1/1000 of the mass of the sun but is on average 5 times as far away, has about 1/25000 of the effect of the sun on the earth's orbit. Not much but not inconsiderable either.

In the case of tides, the effect is inversely proportional to the cube of the distance (differentiate x^-2...) Jupiter is approximately 25000 times the mass of the moon, but is 2000 times as far away, so Jupiter's tidal effect is 25000/8000000000, or 3 parts in a million, of that of the moon ... whereas the Sun's tidal effect is approximately 25000000/64000000 or 40% of that of the moon (the Sun is 25 million times the mass of the moon but 400 times as distant).

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Unless you believe in astrology, where Jupiter not only affects the Earth's orbit, but also your economy, intimate relationship and your where and when you go on vacation.

hahaha I knew it!!! Thats why my gf broke up with me!!! =P

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  • 4 weeks later...
that might otherwise miss us, were Jupiter not to alter their trajectories to put them on a collision course with Earth...

You can simulate this ... for comets falling in from the Kuiper belt or Ooort cloud, Jupiter "catches" 100 times as many as the Earth eventually does, in fact there is a fair chance that the first encounter with Jupiter will chuck such an interloper right out of the solar system altogether. So although it is possible that Jupiter may cause an otherwise harmless object to strike the Earth, on the whole its effect if far more protective than destructive.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Put it this way - I've not been hit on the head by anything from space yet - so I'm assuming Jupiters doing it's job. I've also not won the lottery yet - so I reckon Jupiters having a gravitational effect on the balls that have my numbers on them lol :(

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