• zedgeist@lemmy.world
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    2 days 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.works
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      2 days 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.org
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      2 days 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.org
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        2 days 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.