• Patapon Enjoyer@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      Jupiter is our guardian angel. A big asteroid-deflecting gas giant might be a condition for complex life as we know it to evolve.

      • chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        The trouble I have with statements like this is that “as we know it” is doing so much of the heavy lifting. We don’t have any experience with extraterrestrial life so it’s difficult to imagine how different or similar it may be to our own. We have a sample size of 1 with a completely unknown population. The best we can do right now look at line spectra and make inferences from organic chemistry. But that tells us very little about the potential forms life may take.

        • Patapon Enjoyer@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Well yeah, but if you want to look for planets with life, it’s probably a good idea to look the ones with conditions we know work.

      • AEsheron@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        I never got that. Surely, it’s nearly as likely to divert an asteroid that would miss us to a course that would hit us as it is to do the opposite, right? The number that are actually trapped/impacted is a tiny percentage, and then the percentage of those that would have hit us must be a small percentage of that, is it really enough to be statistically significant?