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WWW.MY-SUBS.COM
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Liftoff of Messenger on
NASA's mission to Mercury.
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Beyond the inner solar system,
past the asteroid belt...
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...lies Jupiter.
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The largest of the planets is a giant
swirling ball of gas...
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...its marbled appearance generated by
violent winds
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that rage through its clouds.
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Jupiter is a world as strange
as it is remote.
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If you fly upwards
only about 100 kilometres or so,
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you reach the edge of our atmosphere
and the blackness of space -
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it's really not that far.
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But once you're in space,
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the distance scales
are incomprehensible.
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Venus, the closest planet,
is over 40 million kilometres away,
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Jupiter around 650 million kilometres.
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It takes our fastest spacecraft
years to get there.
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So the idea that those planets
could have any influence
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on us here on Earth seems fanciful,
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and, indeed, if you're talking about your
chances of meeting a handsome stranger,
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or your life plans requiring a moderate
reconfiguration about a week on Wednesday,
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then you would be right.
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However, if you ask more profound
questions, deeper questions,
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like, why is the Earth
the way that it is,
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why is there life on Earth,
why do we exist at all,
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then it turns out that the planets,
and Jupiter in particular,
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have had a profound effect.
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Early in its life, the young Jupiter
went on the rampage.
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The giant planet embarked on a voyage of
destruction across the solar system...
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...that transformed
the destiny of the planets
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and the course of life on Earth.
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Jupiter is the godfather
of the planets.
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Understand it, and you understand
how the solar system came to be.
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On Earth, we can see glimpses
of Jupiter's power
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in the scars it's left
on the face of the planet.
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This is the famous
Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona.
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It is about a kilometre across,
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170 metres from the rim
to the crater floor,
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and it was created about 50,000 years ago
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when a meteorite 50 metres across
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entered the Earth's atmosphere travelling
at about 13 kilometres per second.
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That means it would have taken around,
what, seven seconds
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to go from the top of the atmosphere
to the ground.
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And it hit with such force
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that the energy released
was equivalent to ten megatons of TNT.
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And that is a very large nuclear bomb.
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The meteorite that hit the Earth here
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is thought to have come from
the asteroid belt...
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...the ring of rocky debris
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that orbits at the edge of the
inner solar system.
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And it was deflected from its orbit
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most likely by the gravitational
influence of Jupiter.
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Jupiter is a completely different
class of planet to the Earth.
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A gas giant.
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A swirling ball of hydrogen and helium
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so large you could fit
1,300 Earths inside.
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Jupiter can exert such a powerful
influence on the asteroids
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because it's so massive -
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it's about two-and-a-half times the mass
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of all the other planets, moons and
asteroids in the solar system combined,
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and therefore it has
a strong gravitational pull.
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And this means that
Jupiter exerts an influence
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across the entire solar system that's
second only to the Sun.
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And that influence does far more
than create the odd crater.
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It can change the history of worlds.
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To understand how Jupiter rose
to such dominance,
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you have to go back to a time before
the solar system even existed.
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Nearly five billion years ago,
a distant exploding star
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sent a shockwave across the galaxy...
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...causing the cloud of gas and dust
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that would become our solar system
to collapse...
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...as the Sun began to form.
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But further out,
something else was growing.
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After 50 million years...
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...the Sun's nuclear furnace ignited...
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...the light of its first dawn
revealing Jupiter...
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...the solar system's first world.
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A planet born so early,
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it swept up most of the material left over
from the formation of the Sun.
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Because of its dominance,
Jupiter had a profound effect
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on the newly forming solar system,
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and paved the way
for our living world to form.
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This is a model of our solar system.
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So here's the Sun, and then
we have the four inner rocky planets -
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Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars.
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Then comes the asteroid belt,
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the ring of millions of small pieces
of rock orbiting around the Sun.
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And then the gas giants -
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
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Now this has a sort of pleasing
regular structure about it,
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all the rocky planets close to the star,
and the gas giants further out,
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and we thought this must be
the natural order of things,
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the way that solar systems
have to form,
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until we started to detect planets
around distant stars,
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and then we found that this arrangement
is not typical at all.
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Our sun is just one of around 300 billion
stars in our galaxy.
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And almost every one of those stars is
home to its own system of planets.
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In most other systems, the region where
our planet orbits is empty.
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Instead, closer to the star,
we see super-Earths -
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vast rocky planets
many times bigger than our own.
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But, crucially, these worlds are thought
to have thick, toxic atmospheres,
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making them completely
inhospitable to life.
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And that raises
a very interesting question -
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why, then, is our solar system
the way that it is?
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To answer that question,
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we've sent spacecraft
to every one of the planets.
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And they've uncovered strange anomalies
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that reveal our solar system's past.
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Our missions to Venus found that
it once had far more water
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than you'd expect for a planet
so close to the Sun,
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just as Earth does today.
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The spacecraft we've sent to Mars
touched down on a world that is,
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curiously, just half the size of
her sister planets, Earth and Venus.
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And in the asteroid belt,
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we've uncovered
a graveyard of failed worlds,
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their growth mysteriously cut short.
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To cause all these anomalies,
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it's thought something catastrophic
must have happened
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very early in the solar system's history.
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All the evidence suggests
that around 4.5 billion years ago,
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Jupiter's orbit began to change,
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triggering a period of
unprecedented violence
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which completely transformed
the face of the young solar system,
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and we know this
because the marauding planet
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left a trail of destruction in its wake.
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Early in its life, Jupiter began to move
inwards towards the Sun.
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And the effects of that journey
can be seen to this day.
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In between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter
lies the asteroid belt...
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...a desolate wasteland of debris
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left over from the beginning
of the solar system.
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Rocky bodies too small to be
planets in their own right.
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In science-fiction films,
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the asteroid belt is often depicted
as an un-navigable mass
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of tumbling rubble,
but it's not like that at all.
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So much so, in fact,
that modern spacecraft engineers
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can fly a spacecraft through
without making any course corrections.
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And the reason for that is, there's
not much mass in the asteroid belt.
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The sum total of all of them is
only about 4% the mass of the Moon,
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and they're spread out in a huge ring
out beyond the orbit of Mars.
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It's a vast amount of space.
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That means that the average distance
between any two large asteroids
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is about eight times the distance between
the Earth and the Moon.
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So I could stand on one of those
large asteroids and look out into space
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and my nearest neighbour
would just be a dim star in the dark.
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But scattered amongst the rubble
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are objects that are far more
than mere rocks.
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Five, four, three, two,
main engines start, one,
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zero, and liftoff of the Delta II rocket
with Dawn.
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In 2007, NASA's Dawn Mission
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was sent to explore the two largest
objects in the asteroid belt.
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After a year in orbit
around the giant asteroid Vesta...
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...in March 2015,
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Dawn made its final approach
on a body so large
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it makes up almost a third of the mass
of the entire asteroid belt.
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Ceres.
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On arrival, the first images
Dawn sent back to Earth
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contained something entirely unexpected.
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Mysterious bright patches
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in one of Ceres's largest craters.
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Spectral analysis of the images
showed the patches were, in fact,
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the salty residue
left behind by liquid water...
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...suggesting there must be large amounts
of ice just beneath the crust.
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Dawn went on to discover over 300
bright spots all over the surface.
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And this means
that beneath its thin crust,
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Ceres has a thick, ice-rich mantle
surrounding its rocky core...
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...evidence that the dwarf planet is
made up of multiple layers.
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The interior of Ceres is like
nothing else in the asteroid belt.
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The differentiation,
that separation into layers,
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observed by Dawn is more characteristic
of a planet than an asteroid.
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So, 4.5 billion years ago,
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Ceres was well on its way to becoming
a fully fledged world.
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It's thought that, in its infancy,
Ceres was very different.
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The water that now lies frozen
within its interior was once liquid.
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Protected beneath a thin layer of ice...
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...Ceres was once covered by
a deep saltwater ocean.
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Before Ceres had
reached its full potential,
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a great disturbance
sent shockwaves through
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what would one day
become the asteroid belt
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and cut its development short.
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As Jupiter circled the young sun,
it started to clear a path
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through the gas and dust that shrouded
the early solar system.
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But that process
caused it to do something alarming.
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Gravitational interactions with the gas
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made the giant planet spiral inwards
towards the sun...
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...ploughing straight through
the region of space
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that would become the asteroid belt...
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...scattering the material from which
Ceres would otherwise have grown.
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Computer simulations of the
early solar system
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suggest that the asteroid belt
once contained enough material
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to build a planet the size of the Earth,
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and perhaps that was Ceres's destiny.
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But when Jupiter passed through,
it scattered 99.9% of the material away,
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and Ceres's fate was sealed.
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Within 100 million years,
Ceres's ocean froze
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and was buried beneath its crust...
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...the young planet's development
cut short
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before it could fulfil its promise.
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But Jupiter's reign of terror
was far from over.
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It would continue its journey inwards
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towards the place our planet
was beginning to form...
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...threatening the very existence
of Earth.
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Jupiter had such an overwhelming effect
on the young solar system
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because of its powerful
gravitational field...
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...the effects of which
we can still witness today.
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Jupiter exerts its influence
across the solar system
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through its gravitational field...
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...which is by far the most powerful
of all the planets',
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because Jupiter is the most massive
of all the planets -
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it's about 320 times
the mass of the Earth.
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That's why it was
so destructive in the past.
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And we see the power of
that gravitational field today
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in its influence on the closest
of Jupiter's largest moons, Io.
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Io is the most volcanic world
in the solar system...
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...its surface covered with
hundreds of active volcanoes...
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...and lakes of molten lava.
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The largest, known as Loki Patera,
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is more than 200 kilometres in diameter...
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...a million times the area of any
lava lake on Earth...
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...its surface tormented by
waves of molten rock.
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Io is a vision of hell...
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...created by the Moon's
proximity to Jupiter.
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Volcanism here on Earth
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is powered by the internal heat
down below the surface.
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Now, much of that is residual heat
left over from the Earth's formation
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4.5 billion years ago -
about half of it -
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and the other half is down to radioactive
decay of elements around the Earth's core.
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Now, on Io, it's different.
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Io is a much smaller world and so
it didn't retain much residual heat,
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so there the volcanoes
are powered by a different process.
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It's known as tidal heating.
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The energy that drives Io's volcanism
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doesn't come from heat stored
within the Moon.
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It's generated by gravity...
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...because Io orbits
just 350,000 kilometres
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from the tops of Jupiter's clouds.
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Io orbits at about the same distance
from Jupiter
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as our moon orbits the Earth,
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but because Jupiter
is so much more massive,
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Io goes around much more quickly.
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In fact, it goes around
once every 42 hours.
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Now, if Io were Jupiter's only moon,
that orbit would be circular.
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But it isn't.
240
00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:17,476
The next moon out, Europa,
goes round Jupiter
241
00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:20,832
precisely once
for every two orbits of Io...
242
00:27:25,120 --> 00:27:30,320
...which means that every second orbit,
Io and Europa fall into alignment.
243
00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:35,079
It's what's known as
an orbital resonance.
244
00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:39,595
That gives it a gravitational kick,
245
00:27:39,720 --> 00:27:42,633
and that moves Io's orbit into an ellipse.
246
00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:45,480
Now, that means that
the gravitational forces on Io
247
00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:48,559
are constantly shifting and changing,
248
00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:51,275
and that stretches and squashes
the moon
249
00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:53,995
and heats it up by friction,
250
00:27:54,120 --> 00:27:56,157
and that is called tidal heating,
251
00:27:56,280 --> 00:27:59,796
and that is the origin of Io's volcanoes.
252
00:28:12,120 --> 00:28:15,670
This process raises the temperature
in Io's interior -
253
00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:18,599
which would otherwise be frozen solid -
254
00:28:18,720 --> 00:28:21,554
to more than 1,000 degrees Celsius...
255
00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:25,439
...creating its lava lakes...
256
00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:31,594
...and powering immense volcanic plumes...
257
00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:38,713
...that rise up to 300 kilometres from
the moon's surface...
258
00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:41,833
...and out into space.
259
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:50,710
Io provides the solar system
with a vivid reminder...
260
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:53,958
...of the giant planet's power.
261
00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:11,638
Jupiter's intense gravitational field...
262
00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:17,157
...is the source of Io's volcanism today,
263
00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:20,512
but we don't feel that gravitational pull
here on Earth
264
00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:22,871
because Jupiter is so far away.
265
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:25,435
But 4.5 billion years ago,
266
00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:30,077
Jupiter was migrating inwards towards
the inner solar system,
267
00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:34,035
approaching the region
where Mars and Earth were forming.
268
00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:43,072
After passing through what would become
the asteroid belt...
269
00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:48,200
...Jupiter entered
the inner solar system...
270
00:29:53,000 --> 00:29:56,676
...continuing its journey
spiralling towards the Sun.
271
00:30:04,640 --> 00:30:08,395
Back then, the area where Mars
and Earth orbit today
272
00:30:08,520 --> 00:30:11,194
was densely packed with gas and rock.
273
00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:23,837
But as Jupiter approached,
it wrought havoc...
274
00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:28,239
...scattering the rocky material
in all directions.
275
00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:34,040
Some sent careering into the Sun...
276
00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:46,597
...others thrown out
into interstellar space.
277
00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:58,711
And it's this that may explain
our solar system's unusual structure.
278
00:31:01,560 --> 00:31:03,870
Here's the solar system today. The Sun,
279
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:05,719
the four inner rocky planets,
280
00:31:05,840 --> 00:31:07,559
the asteroids and Jupiter,
281
00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:09,592
and what we think may have happened
282
00:31:09,720 --> 00:31:13,509
is Jupiter made it inwards,
through where the asteroids are,
283
00:31:13,640 --> 00:31:16,109
as far in as the orbit of Mars.
284
00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:18,800
Now, that would have cleaned out
quite a lot of the material
285
00:31:18,920 --> 00:31:23,312
in the inner solar system,
leaving less for the formation of planets.
286
00:31:23,440 --> 00:31:27,229
And that's why we don't see
super-Earths in our solar system,
287
00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:32,913
those big, massive rocky worlds that we
see in orbit around so many other stars.
288
00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:36,795
This also might explain
why Mars is so small.
289
00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:40,994
See, if Jupiter was orbiting
in the region that Mars was forming,
290
00:31:41,120 --> 00:31:44,636
there would have been much less
material here, and that might explain
291
00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:49,960
why Mars is only a tenth of the mass
of Venus and Earth.
292
00:32:00,200 --> 00:32:02,840
Had Jupiter continued to move inwards,
293
00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:05,873
it would have had a similar effect
on the Earth...
294
00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:11,436
...meaning the world we inhabit
might never have formed.
295
00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:21,471
But just as it looked like Jupiter would
sweep everything away...
296
00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:26,151
...something stopped the giant planet
in its tracks.
297
00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:36,870
Because in the shadows of
the outer solar system
298
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:38,593
another planet was forming.
299
00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:46,480
The solar system's second gas giant...
300
00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:49,995
...Saturn.
301
00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:05,154
And its birth changed everything.
302
00:33:09,640 --> 00:33:12,712
When a planet forms in a disc of material
around a star,
303
00:33:12,840 --> 00:33:15,753
as Jupiter did in our solar system,
304
00:33:15,880 --> 00:33:19,760
it tends to clear out a gap in the disc.
305
00:33:19,880 --> 00:33:23,590
Now, the material tends to fall inwards
towards the star -
306
00:33:23,720 --> 00:33:27,600
it's called accretion -
and that drags the whole thing inwards,
307
00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:29,757
and that's what happened to Jupiter.
308
00:33:29,880 --> 00:33:33,510
But then a less massive planet, Saturn,
309
00:33:33,640 --> 00:33:37,998
formed further out.
It cleared out its own disc
310
00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:41,511
and it too fell inwards towards the Sun,
311
00:33:41,640 --> 00:33:44,235
but more quickly than Jupiter.
312
00:33:44,360 --> 00:33:47,797
That meant that Saturn
got into a resonance with Jupiter.
313
00:33:47,920 --> 00:33:53,393
It went round once in orbit around the Sun
for every two orbits of Jupiter.
314
00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:59,073
And that has the effect of cleaning out
the whole region between the two planets.
315
00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:04,594
And that has the effect, through a series
of complicated gravitational interactions,
316
00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:07,235
of slowing and stopping the infall
317
00:34:07,360 --> 00:34:11,957
and eventually causing the two planets
to move back out again.
318
00:34:12,080 --> 00:34:17,075
And that is what happened to Jupiter
and Saturn in our solar system.
319
00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:28,353
Saturn caused Jupiter to retreat,
320
00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:33,191
leaving behind just enough material
from which the inner planets could form.
321
00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:38,035
Mercury.
322
00:34:40,720 --> 00:34:42,234
Venus.
323
00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:46,520
Mars.
324
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:55,514
And our home, the Earth.
325
00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:05,716
By preventing the formation of
much larger super-Earths,
326
00:35:05,840 --> 00:35:08,435
Jupiter allowed our planet to grow.
327
00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:27,116
And even as Jupiter's reign of terror
was drawing to a close...
328
00:35:28,520 --> 00:35:33,151
...it provided one last parting gift
to our world.
329
00:35:46,920 --> 00:35:50,596
The young Earth formed in an arid region
of the inner solar system.
330
00:35:50,720 --> 00:35:53,519
There was very little water
that close to the Sun.
331
00:35:53,640 --> 00:35:55,518
But as the Earth was forming,
332
00:35:55,640 --> 00:35:58,758
Jupiter was already
tacking back outwards again
333
00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:03,113
into the outer solar system, through the
region that we now call the asteroid belt,
334
00:36:03,240 --> 00:36:08,474
a region populated by many icy,
water-rich comets and asteroids.
335
00:36:08,600 --> 00:36:11,434
And they were scattered
back inwards again,
336
00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:14,678
bringing water back
into the inner solar system.
337
00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:16,871
So I think it is
quite a wonderful thought,
338
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:21,711
that Earth is a water world today
because of the motion inwards
339
00:36:21,840 --> 00:36:25,516
and then back outwards again
of the massive planet Jupiter.
340
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:37,598
This idea does seem quite contrived,
almost fantastical.
341
00:36:37,720 --> 00:36:40,997
But the more we learn
about the formation of solar systems
342
00:36:41,120 --> 00:36:44,636
and the more we try to model
a system like ours
343
00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:48,515
with four terrestrial, water-rich planets
close to the star
344
00:36:48,640 --> 00:36:50,836
and then the gas giants further out,
345
00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:55,716
the more we learn that
perhaps all these things had to happen,
346
00:36:55,840 --> 00:36:59,834
these unlikely movements
and interactions between the planets,
347
00:36:59,960 --> 00:37:05,877
in order to produce a system like ours
and a planet like ours.
348
00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:10,279
So places like this
may be extremely rare.
349
00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:28,911
Today, Jupiter has settled into
a regular orbit,
350
00:37:29,040 --> 00:37:31,953
back beyond the far edge
of the asteroid belt...
351
00:37:35,080 --> 00:37:38,915
...its days of marauding
through the solar system at an end.
352
00:38:22,520 --> 00:38:27,197
Jupiter has been established in a stable
orbit for almost 4 billion years.
353
00:38:27,320 --> 00:38:30,313
If I was to sit here on Earth
3.8 billion years ago,
354
00:38:30,440 --> 00:38:33,353
when life began,
and look up into the night sky,
355
00:38:33,480 --> 00:38:36,791
I would have seen it shining there
as a point of light,
356
00:38:36,920 --> 00:38:38,752
the same as it looks today,
357
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:41,349
distant and seemingly detached,
358
00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:44,279
and it's remained that way for the
vast expanse of time
359
00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:47,313
it's taken for evolution
by natural selection
360
00:38:47,440 --> 00:38:53,072
to transform those first
populations of organisms into all this,
361
00:38:53,200 --> 00:38:58,832
to transform the Earth into an oasis
of life in the desert of the solar system.
362
00:39:09,160 --> 00:39:12,551
But Jupiter's influence over the Earth
remains to this day.
363
00:39:17,680 --> 00:39:21,071
And that's because,
despite its great distance from us...
364
00:39:22,920 --> 00:39:26,357
...it retains a vice-like grip
over the asteroid belt.
365
00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:44,753
It's easy, and I think quite natural,
to think of the asteroid belt
366
00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:49,079
as a single structure, so a ring of rock
surrounding the Sun.
367
00:39:49,200 --> 00:39:51,192
But that's not what it's like at all.
368
00:39:51,320 --> 00:39:55,872
In reality, each one of those millions
and millions of pieces of rock
369
00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:58,674
is following its own individual orbit,
370
00:39:58,800 --> 00:40:05,036
and this remarkable animation is made up
of ten years of astronomical observations,
371
00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:09,154
and every point you see on this animation
372
00:40:09,280 --> 00:40:14,036
is a single asteroid, apart from
all the planets, and so you see
373
00:40:14,160 --> 00:40:17,039
Earth and Mars and Venus
whizzing around the Sun,
374
00:40:17,160 --> 00:40:20,836
but the interesting one is Jupiter,
375
00:40:20,960 --> 00:40:23,919
orbiting just outside the asteroid belt.
376
00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:30,640
And what you can see is that the
asteroid belt dances to Jupiter's tune.
377
00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:33,229
It's the conductor of the asteroid belt,
if you like.
378
00:40:33,360 --> 00:40:35,750
There are complex patterns here,
379
00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:37,633
but there's also structure.
380
00:40:39,560 --> 00:40:42,951
And the reason for that
is the delicate interplay
381
00:40:43,080 --> 00:40:45,595
between the gravitational pull of the Sun
382
00:40:45,720 --> 00:40:48,599
and the gravitational force from Jupiter.
383
00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:53,956
Now, what can happen is that,
perhaps because of an interaction
384
00:40:54,080 --> 00:40:56,754
between two asteroids -
perhaps they collide with each other,
385
00:40:56,880 --> 00:41:00,237
or perhaps on their orbit
they line up perfectly with Jupiter
386
00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:02,238
and get an extra gravitational kick -
387
00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:05,432
those asteroids can be disturbed
from this structure
388
00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:08,120
and be sent inwards
to the inner solar system.
389
00:41:08,240 --> 00:41:10,072
And by that mechanism,
390
00:41:10,200 --> 00:41:15,992
Jupiter has a profound influence
on the planets closer to the Sun.
391
00:41:25,840 --> 00:41:27,832
Around 100 million years ago,
392
00:41:27,960 --> 00:41:32,876
an asteroid ten kilometres across was
ejected from the asteroid belt.
393
00:41:37,800 --> 00:41:40,031
Dislodged by Jupiter's gravity,
394
00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:43,676
it was set on a collision course
with the Earth.
395
00:42:02,360 --> 00:42:06,752
When it struck,
it generated a fireball so hot,
396
00:42:06,880 --> 00:42:12,274
anything within a 1,000-kilometre radius
would have died instantly.
397
00:42:20,640 --> 00:42:26,398
The impact threw 300 billion tonnes
of sulphur into the atmosphere.
398
00:42:34,920 --> 00:42:38,118
And during the nuclear winter
that followed,
399
00:42:38,240 --> 00:42:43,315
75% of all species
were wiped from the face of the Earth.
400
00:42:51,440 --> 00:42:56,640
In one fell swoop, Jupiter changed the
course of our planet's history.
401
00:43:08,640 --> 00:43:11,314
There are a few places on Earth today
402
00:43:11,440 --> 00:43:14,478
where you can catch
a glimpse of lost worlds -
403
00:43:14,600 --> 00:43:18,355
you can see Earth as it was millions
of years in the past
404
00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:21,757
and perhaps glimpse
the Earth as it might have been.
405
00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:23,439
And this is one of them.
406
00:43:23,560 --> 00:43:27,520
Today, this is the Colorado Plain,
over a kilometre in altitude,
407
00:43:27,640 --> 00:43:30,599
south of Denver,
close to the Rocky Mountains.
408
00:43:30,720 --> 00:43:34,316
But 200 million years ago,
this was at sea level.
409
00:43:34,440 --> 00:43:39,276
It was an ancient lake,
and the ghosts of those lost worlds,
410
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:41,960
the imprint of the past,
can be seen over there,
411
00:43:42,080 --> 00:43:46,552
because there are literally thousands
of dinosaur footprints.
412
00:44:12,320 --> 00:44:15,313
And here they are -
the dinosaur footprints.
413
00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:18,160
I find this absolutely remarkable.
414
00:44:18,280 --> 00:44:21,114
This is the footprint of
a sauropod dinosaur -
415
00:44:21,240 --> 00:44:24,870
that's one of the big ones,
the big herbivores with the long necks.
416
00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:27,799
This animal would have weighed
about 30 tonnes.
417
00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:31,311
It was tall enough to peer over
a two-storey house.
418
00:44:31,440 --> 00:44:34,990
And what happened here is probably
a herd of them, a group of them,
419
00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:38,352
came lumbering across this lake bed.
420
00:44:38,480 --> 00:44:40,870
And then, perhaps that same afternoon,
421
00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:43,834
predators came,
maybe following the herd.
422
00:44:43,960 --> 00:44:46,555
And that's these footprints here -
423
00:44:46,680 --> 00:44:49,832
the allosaurs,
these three-toed footprints.
424
00:44:49,960 --> 00:44:53,192
A much smaller animal,
maybe about twice the height of me,
425
00:44:53,320 --> 00:44:55,710
about two tonnes, very nimble and agile.
426
00:44:55,840 --> 00:45:01,074
And so you see a whole story
played out here, frozen in time.
427
00:45:15,280 --> 00:45:18,478
Today, just their traces remain.
428
00:45:23,560 --> 00:45:25,153
But were it not for Jupiter...
429
00:45:27,200 --> 00:45:29,317
...they might still be here.
430
00:45:46,600 --> 00:45:48,478
There are so many chance events,
431
00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:51,354
not only throughout
the history of Earth,
432
00:45:51,480 --> 00:45:55,360
but also spanning the entire history of
the universe for 13.8 billion years,
433
00:45:55,480 --> 00:45:58,075
without which we wouldn't exist.
434
00:45:58,200 --> 00:46:00,032
There's an unbroken chain of life
435
00:46:00,160 --> 00:46:02,755
stretching back 4 billion years
here on this planet.
436
00:46:02,880 --> 00:46:08,035
You interrupt or interject at any point,
and life on Earth is different.
437
00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:12,313
But having said that,
there are major events that affected life,
438
00:46:12,440 --> 00:46:15,672
and one of them is the asteroid
that wiped out the dinosaurs.
439
00:46:15,800 --> 00:46:20,636
And in that sense, it is certainly true
to say that without Jupiter,
440
00:46:20,760 --> 00:46:22,240
we wouldn't be here.
441
00:46:38,880 --> 00:46:43,477
The godfather of the planets
paved the way for us to inherit the Earth.
442
00:46:49,320 --> 00:46:53,712
And although it occasionally flings rocks
from the asteroid belt our way,
443
00:46:53,840 --> 00:46:56,719
it also protects us.
444
00:47:03,160 --> 00:47:05,436
Because for objects
heading towards the Earth
445
00:47:05,560 --> 00:47:08,234
from the far reaches of the solar system,
446
00:47:08,360 --> 00:47:12,354
Jupiter's gravitational field
acts as a shield.
447
00:47:17,560 --> 00:47:23,318
Around a century ago, a lump
of rock and ice four kilometres across
448
00:47:23,440 --> 00:47:26,160
and weighing 17 billion tonnes...
449
00:47:27,920 --> 00:47:30,480
...was hurtling towards
the inner solar system.
450
00:47:35,520 --> 00:47:38,319
Until Jupiter intervened.
451
00:47:41,440 --> 00:47:46,310
Five, four, three, two, one.
452
00:47:46,440 --> 00:47:48,875
We have ignition and liftoff of Atlantis
453
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:52,596
and the Galileo spacecraft
bound for Jupiter.
454
00:47:52,720 --> 00:47:54,473
70 years later,
455
00:47:54,600 --> 00:47:58,435
we witnessed just how effective a shield
Jupiter can be...
456
00:48:08,160 --> 00:48:13,838
...on board the Space Shuttle Atlantis,
the Galileo orbiter.
457
00:48:23,200 --> 00:48:25,556
Three years after Galileo launched,
458
00:48:25,680 --> 00:48:29,993
comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
had been captured by Jupiter's gravity.
459
00:48:39,840 --> 00:48:42,594
Locked in the giant planet's embrace...
460
00:48:44,920 --> 00:48:47,754
...tidal forces
now began to tear it apart.
461
00:48:55,360 --> 00:48:57,511
Its journey cut short,
462
00:48:57,640 --> 00:49:00,200
the comet now faced annihilation.
463
00:49:11,960 --> 00:49:14,191
After crossing the inner solar system,
464
00:49:14,320 --> 00:49:17,472
Galileo passed through
the asteroid belt...
465
00:49:20,960 --> 00:49:25,193
...approaching the spot from where it
would witness the comet's final moments.
466
00:49:35,560 --> 00:49:40,954
On July 16th, Galileo saw
the first fragments of the comet
467
00:49:41,080 --> 00:49:43,515
enter Jupiter's southern hemisphere.
468
00:49:56,000 --> 00:49:58,071
Pieces of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
469
00:49:58,200 --> 00:50:00,954
struck Jupiter
over the course of six days.
470
00:50:05,560 --> 00:50:09,998
It was the first time a comet strike
had ever been witnessed.
471
00:50:30,440 --> 00:50:32,397
The most destructive impact
472
00:50:32,520 --> 00:50:36,799
released energy equivalent to
6 million megatons of TNT...
473
00:50:38,920 --> 00:50:43,995
...leaving behind a giant dark cloud
12,000 kilometres across.
474
00:50:53,400 --> 00:50:57,679
By capturing objects
and incinerating them on impact,
475
00:50:57,800 --> 00:51:01,589
Jupiter sweeps up bodies
from the outer solar system
476
00:51:01,720 --> 00:51:04,440
that might otherwise collide with Earth.
477
00:51:18,040 --> 00:51:22,398
Jupiter, the oldest
and largest of the planets,
478
00:51:22,520 --> 00:51:25,319
is the godfather of our solar system.
479
00:51:29,480 --> 00:51:33,076
In youth, it went on the rampage.
480
00:51:41,880 --> 00:51:44,918
For some young planets,
it spelled disaster.
481
00:51:50,200 --> 00:51:52,874
But for others, like our own world,
482
00:51:53,000 --> 00:51:55,879
it cleared the way for their formation.
483
00:52:04,040 --> 00:52:08,592
And in adulthood, it created
the conditions that allowed us to rise.
484
00:52:13,480 --> 00:52:16,632
So we owe Jupiter a great debt.
485
00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:21,432
But as the dinosaurs found to their cost,
486
00:52:21,560 --> 00:52:25,315
it's a debt that could be recalled
at any time.
487
00:52:30,360 --> 00:52:31,589
To the naked eye,
488
00:52:31,720 --> 00:52:34,758
Jupiter's one of the brightest
points of light in the night sky,
489
00:52:34,880 --> 00:52:38,794
and through a small telescope
it is a beautiful banded world.
490
00:52:38,920 --> 00:52:41,879
But it feels distant, eternal,
491
00:52:42,000 --> 00:52:45,516
disconnected from events here on Earth.
492
00:52:45,640 --> 00:52:48,917
But the more we've understood
about the history of the solar system,
493
00:52:49,040 --> 00:52:51,874
the more we've come to understand that
that is not the case.
494
00:52:52,000 --> 00:52:56,438
Jupiter has played an important
and perhaps decisive role
495
00:52:56,560 --> 00:52:59,951
in the stories of all the planets,
including Earth.
496
00:53:00,080 --> 00:53:02,117
You see, the solar system is just that.
497
00:53:02,240 --> 00:53:07,315
It's a system - complex,
interconnected and interdependent.
498
00:53:07,440 --> 00:53:13,072
So next time you see Jupiter, just
hold your gaze, maybe think for a minute,
499
00:53:13,200 --> 00:53:17,240
because it is so much more than
just a point of light,
500
00:53:17,360 --> 00:53:18,714
or a planet, even.
501
00:53:18,840 --> 00:53:22,072
It is the great sculptor
of the solar system.
502
00:53:22,200 --> 00:53:25,238
The destroyer and creator of worlds.
503
00:54:06,720 --> 00:54:09,792
I think people are drawn in by Jupiter
504
00:54:09,920 --> 00:54:11,832
because it's very mysterious,
505
00:54:11,960 --> 00:54:14,953
it's covered by
clouds that hide what's underneath.
506
00:54:15,080 --> 00:54:16,400
It's very violent.
507
00:54:18,200 --> 00:54:20,431
And it's very intimidating.
508
00:54:22,280 --> 00:54:25,159
It's also very beautiful.
509
00:54:25,280 --> 00:54:29,877
It has all these things going on,
and it's hard not to be taken in.
510
00:54:30,000 --> 00:54:34,836
T minus ten, nine, eight,
seven, six, five...
511
00:54:34,960 --> 00:54:37,634
Such is Jupiter's mystique,
512
00:54:37,760 --> 00:54:41,674
it's been a recurring target
for space exploration.
513
00:54:41,800 --> 00:54:47,273
...and liftoff, Atlas V with Juno.
Trek to Jupiter.
514
00:54:47,400 --> 00:54:52,236
In 2011, NASA launched
its latest mission, Juno.
515
00:55:01,560 --> 00:55:03,950
When we launched
the Juno spacecraft
516
00:55:04,080 --> 00:55:06,675
away from the Earth, out towards Jupiter,
517
00:55:06,800 --> 00:55:12,910
we didn't have enough speed to get away,
out of the gravity of the Sun,
518
00:55:13,040 --> 00:55:15,236
so we actually had to
come back to Earth,
519
00:55:15,360 --> 00:55:19,718
get a gravity assist from Earth
and then go out to Jupiter.
520
00:55:23,480 --> 00:55:27,713
After travelling
for five years, Juno finally arrived.
521
00:55:32,320 --> 00:55:36,109
This is a mission that
goes closer to the planet in its orbit
522
00:55:36,240 --> 00:55:37,879
than any other mission ever has,
523
00:55:38,000 --> 00:55:40,834
only a few thousand kilometres
from the cloud tops.
524
00:55:40,960 --> 00:55:45,034
And very, very fast -
we go from pole to pole in two hours,
525
00:55:45,160 --> 00:55:48,119
slipping between the radiation belts
and the cloud tops,
526
00:55:48,240 --> 00:55:51,278
getting the data as fast as we can
and getting out.
527
00:55:53,560 --> 00:55:56,598
So in every way,
Juno is breaking new ground
528
00:55:56,720 --> 00:56:00,794
and that's allowed us to see things
that we couldn't have ever imagined.
529
00:56:05,320 --> 00:56:09,758
Juno's mission is to explore
the planet inside and out.
530
00:56:11,800 --> 00:56:14,872
And amongst the many scientific
instruments it has on board
531
00:56:15,000 --> 00:56:17,674
is its camera, JunoCam.
532
00:56:20,320 --> 00:56:24,792
You see all these swirls.
You see all sorts of spots coming up.
533
00:56:24,920 --> 00:56:26,559
You see all these vortices.
534
00:56:26,680 --> 00:56:30,674
You see dramatic storm systems
interacting.
535
00:56:36,280 --> 00:56:41,639
It's mind-blowingly beautiful pictures
that this little camera has been taking.
536
00:56:44,800 --> 00:56:48,476
JunoCam was able to see the
Great Red Spot from up close.
537
00:56:49,960 --> 00:56:52,111
We can see height to the clouds,
538
00:56:52,240 --> 00:56:54,800
we can see features
that look like storms.
539
00:56:54,920 --> 00:56:59,597
Maybe it's hailing
or snowing ammonia on Jupiter.
540
00:57:02,640 --> 00:57:07,510
And the most startling thing that we saw
from JunoCam's imagery
541
00:57:07,640 --> 00:57:10,633
was that the poles of Jupiter
are actually blue.
542
00:57:15,040 --> 00:57:17,680
They're nothing like
the orange and white planet
543
00:57:17,800 --> 00:57:20,599
that we grew up thinking about
as children.
544
00:57:25,560 --> 00:57:29,349
Juno has just begun to unlock
Jupiter's secrets.
545
00:57:32,040 --> 00:57:38,640
And so, at last, the godfather
of the planets has begun to talk.