“The Jupiter Effect”
Sir. — The article, “The Jupiter Effect,” (“The May 9) was heavy on sensational innuendo, and light on facts. Jupiter, “bigger than a thousand Earths,” is about 320 times the mass of this planet. Jupiter “more than twice the mass of all the other planets combined” — true, but Jupiter and all the rest are insignificant beside the sun, whose mass exceeds theirs 750 times. Jupiter is so far from Earth that even at his closest approach his gravitational pull on the Eearth is less than one hundredth that of our own moon, and has a much tinier fraction of the pull the sun has upon us. “Astronomers are warning ...” One wonders how many astronomers (other than those with a penchant for things astrological) would wish to associate themselves with such “warnings.” We may well be visited by natural disasters in 1982, but I doubt we could blame Jupiter for that. —Yours, etc., S. D. PEPPERLE. May 9, 1979.
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Press, 11 May 1979, Page 14
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160“The Jupiter Effect” Press, 11 May 1979, Page 14
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