How Other Objects in the Solar System Effect Earth's Habitability

Jupiter is by far the most influential planet gravitationally speaking in our solar system, which makes sense, because it is the biggest.  It is constantly redirecting asteroids and comets one way or another, and you could make the argument that this helps or hurts the Earth.  Overall, Jupiter's effects on Earth probably balance out to being neutral.  But what if Jupiter had formed somewhere else in the solar system?  Would Earth still be habitable if it was much closer, or much further away?  The answer is interesting, but not for the reasons that I thought.

One of the most interesting things in that article is how the Moon influences Earth.  I've watched completely reputable shows and heard quite a bit about how the Moon is so important to maintaining our climate, and without it, Earth probably wouldn't even be habitable.  The idea that a large moon is key to life is a big tenet of the Rare Earth Hypothesis.  But according to this article, a planet without a large moon should remain stable for much longer than the Earth is going to with its moon.  If the Moon suddenly disappeared today, it would wreak havoc on Earth, but if the Moon had never been there, the problem of sudden destabilization wouldn't be present.

This whole business got scientists thinking about how big planets could help or hurt the habitability of habitable planets in the inner solar system.  So, scientists began running simulations on Jupiter, the only planet that has a really noticeable gravitational effect on Earth.  They brought in closer, they brought further away, they gave it an eccentric orbit, but for the most part, Earth's orbit and axis remained about the same.  There are some interesting implications to this study, for instance, it shows that compact solar systems are less likely to host habitable worlds because gravity would imbalance a small world quicker.  It also gives credence to the idea that solar system formation is a chaotic one, and that the places planets end up is as much up to chance as it is to physics.

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