The third of Brian Cox’s programmes looks at the daddy of all the planets: the gas giant Jupiter.
Not only the biggest, but the oldest too, Jupiter has had a massive impact across the entire solar system. It’s gravitational pull is what possibly prevent Mars from sustaining life; its gravity caused a asteroid to hit the Earth that wiped out the dinosaurs; and one of its moons, Io, is so close to Jupiter that is now the most volcanic body in the solar system.
Cox examines in detail how Jupiter came to be and what it’s impact has been elsewhere.
The Planets is on BBC Two at 21.00.
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