What If We Replaced The Moon With Jupiter Overnight?

Do you love Jupiter? Do you love it so much you could look at it every day? I hope so. Because it just took the Moon's place, and Earth will never be the same again. No one is quite sure how Jupiter replaced the Moon overnight. All anyone knows is that it’s a beautiful and terrifying sight. This gas giant is 11 times larger than Earth. So depending on where you were, it could take up a huge portion of the sky. But it’s not just our sky that would change. Jupiter would transform the Earth in several ways. The Moon doesn’t orbit the exact center of the Earth. Instead, it orbits a point 4,671 km (2,902 mi) off-center inside the Earth. It's called the barycenter. If you were able to combine the Earth's mass

with the Moon's, the barycenter would be the center point. With Jupiter in our skies, the barycenter would shift. And I mean, it would really shift. So the barycenter would move from inside the Earth to inside Jupiter, drastically changing Earth's orbit. Earth wouldn’t be a planet anymore. Instead, we would be Jupiter’s moon. OK, so we would live on a moon. No big deal, right? Well, no. It would be a huge deal. Oh, hi. I was just finishing a voiceover for another stellar episode. You know, one of the things I love about my work is how it always feels like I’m just having a conversation with you, the viewer. And I couldn’t do that without Grammarly Premium. Grammarly helps me write in clear and exciting ways, and it gives me real-time feedback on my tone. I don’t want to sound like a professor lecturing. But these scripts aren’t the only thing I write. Like you, I also write emails, and Grammarly keeps my grammar, punctuation, and style sharp. And can use it anywhere.

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at Grammarly.com/WHATIF Now let's go back to Jupiter. Now that the Earth orbits

Jupiter, it would be tidally locked. Jupiter’s strong gravitational pull would

cause one side of the Earth to always face Jupiter. And Earth's other side would

always face toward space. The Earth would still complete one full rotation on

its axis in one day. It would also take the same time to complete one orbit

around Jupiter. You’d still have 24-hour days. But a year would be twice as

long. In its new position, Jupiter would take 27 months.

 If you were to live on the side of Earth that didn't face Jupiter, your days would seem normal as the

Earth passes in between Jupiter and the Sun. But your nights would be dark and

moonless. At least you’d have the stars to enjoy. If you were to live on the

side of Earth facing Jupiter, your days would have less sunlight. Depending on

Jupiter's position in the sky, it could partially or fully block out the Sun.

And every day, you'd get to feast your eyes on a solar eclipse. And Jupiter

would bathe your nights in yellow light since it would reflect 50% of the

sunlight that hits it. And that’s really bright when you compare it to the Moon.

The Moon only reflects 12% of the sunlight hitting it, and it’s a lot smaller

than Jupiter. So if you turn up the brightness and make it larger, that’s one

giant night light. It doesn’t sound too bad yet. But that’s because I’ve saved

the nastiest consequences for last. Remember I said that Earth would be tidally

locked? Because of that, Earth could experience tidal heating too. There would

be a much stronger gravitational force on the part of Earth facing Jupiter than

on the side facing space. And that would start distorting the Earth's shape.

Deadly earthquakes would become common as parts of Earth were ripped apart. And

violent volcanic eruptions would destroy cities and pollute our air. We're just

lucky that Jupiter didn't bring its other moons into our neighborhood. One of

Jupiter's moons, Io, are undergoing the same type of deformation, making it the

most volcanically active world in the Solar System. And it’s not just Jupiter’s

fault. The other moons orbiting Jupiter force Io into an elliptical orbit,

making the disastrous effects of tidal heating even more catastrophic.

Fortunately for us, the Earth’s orbit would continue to be more like a circle.

But Earth's geographical transformations would still be enormous. And you’d see

massive migrations as people moved to safer places. And it’s not just the

volcanoes and earthquakes that could kill you. Radiation from Jupiter would

blast our planet, killing or mutating all lifeforms. Oh, and one more thing.

Jupiter's gravitational force attracts asteroids. And we would be right in their

way. It’s looking like you’d have to move underground to survive. So as pretty

as Jupiter is, I’d rather it stay where it is, 628 million km (390 million mi)

away from Earth. And if Jupiter were to replace the Moon, is it possible that

Jupiter would eventually swallow the Earth? Would we pass right through its

gassy mass? Well, that’s a story for another WHAT IF.