#mass-extinction

#mass-extinction

Herds of hadrosaurs with huge head crests and duck bills roamed ancient New Mexico for plants to eat, making sure not to end up underfoot a long-necked titanosaur or, worse, in the jaws of a Tyrannosaurus rex. None of them knew that a seven-mile-long space rock hurtling toward Earth was about to kill them all. The asteroid impact triggered one of the planet's worst mass-extinction events, wiping out all dinosaurs but birds.

Jupiter's presence actually makes these collisions far more likely on Earth, and there's more than a 70% chance that the K-Pg extinction wouldn't have occurred without Jupiter.