does earth exist because Jupiter has such massive sucking power?

[mopaul]

thousands of asteroids and comets would be hitting us if it weren't for jupiter's gravitational pull huh? maybe we owe jupiter a debt of gratitude.

in case no one has, all hail planet jupiter!

[htuttle]

1. Way to take one for the team, Jupiter!

Ouch! That's gotta hurt!

[dolo amber]

2. You do realize due to that pic

you're on about half of DU's ignore list right now...;)

Seriously dude, that's gonna cause me to have to repress this entire part of my life in my memory... x(

[aquart]

3. No chance this is why Jupiter was chief god in the good old days?

I mean, somebody knew something, because Jupiter isn't exactly naked eye impressive.

[Rabrrrrrr]

4. You got it backwards

Jupiter was named after the chief god, not the chief god being named after the planet. They didni't know of Jupiter as a planet back then, and absolutely wouldn't have called it Jupiter even if they had known of it.

[aquart]

6. Yes? When did this take place?

[Rabrrrrrr]

7. Well, this is the best that I could find

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/solarsystem/jupiter/index.shtml

The Romans named the planet Jupiter after their king of the gods - a fortunate coincidence since they couldn't possibly have known that Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System.

The Greeks referred to the planet as Zeus, who was the king in their mythology.

Which surprises me - I hadn't realized the Romans had called it Jupiter. I thought that name came much later. But, at least according to the BCC, the planet was named after the god, not the god after the planet.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

8. Makes perfect sense to me

why not?

[aquart]

12. Interesting. Specious, but interesting.

Let me lay a name on you and see if you recoil: Velikovsky.

Funny thing about naming the planet Jupiter after the king of the gods: a bunch of other cultures named it after THEIR king of the gods, too. Earlier cultures. Funny, huh? Wonder how they knew.

<http://www.varchive.org/ce/sinolnotes.htm>

Anyway, there's a little more to it than you've been told. Oh, a lot more to it, but why scare you. Scientists like to spit when they say the name Velikovsky. My history professor referred to him as "That idiot from Princeton." Publishers refused to print his books after the first few insulted so many scientific and historical axioms. Which is why the Archive preserves his work online.

The thing is, we keep finding out he was right. He is NEVER credited for getting it right when everyone was getting it wrong. Never. But we keep finding out he was right. Not about everything. His little mention of Sukkoth, for instance, is guesswork. Probably never imagined that a Celtic word could end up being used for a Jewish holiday. Especially the Celtic for "pig." And, while it may well have been a Persian holiday, it was actually a pretty big holiday for the whole region. A pig got buried, a pig got dug up.....palms were involved...Persephone myth...And yes, there were plenty of Celts in the area. Who knew?

Velikovsky got banned from the academic universe when he said the Egyptologists had gotten their chronology wrong. They did. Nothing funnier than reading Egyptologists trying to explain the impossible. They even have their own special carbon dating system. You can't carbon date Egyptian relics like you do everything else, because the dates come out all wrong. So they have a special formula to fix them like the Egyptologists say they should be.

Velikovsky said Venus was hot. Scientists said it was cold. Oops.

Velikovsky said Mars once had water. OH! What did we just discover? It used to have water.

Oh, and Velikovsky said the earth had experienced catastrophes when the Darwinists were yelling that it was all a pieceful progression of survival of the fittest. Oops.

So maybe you want to take a little look.

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. Well, I don't know why you feel the need to take a huge tirade against me

I've never heard of Velikovsky, so I certainly could not have been impugning him.

And yes, I knew that other cultures named Jupiter after their gods. As they did the sun and the moon. With Jupiter being so bright, this is not surprising. It's a pretty obvious choice.

All I was pointing out was that the planet was named after the god. They didn't name the god after the name of the planet.

So, inappropriate tirade aside, thanks for the info, anyway. I shall look it up. Velikovsky sounds like an interesting guy.

[Stew225]

5. Jupiter sucks! eom

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

9. that and radiation.... without radiation we would be nowhere.

hail Jupiter and radiation!

[roguevalley]

10. so it is said. Ave, Jupiter.

failed star though ye may be, you will always be a gas giant in my book. Even if you aren't. you wanker.

[no name no slogan]

11. Sounds like an old Minnesota riddle

Q: Do you know why the Mississippi River flows south?
A: Because Iowa sucks.

(I never said it was a good riddle)