[Myrddin]

We were lucky it took one for the team. If there is crap that large floating around and making visible impacts on Jupiter, we may not be as lucky at some point.

[ak267]

That impact was actually Obama’s poll numbers :)

[Yossarian]

If there is crap that large floating around and making visible impacts on Jupiter, we may not be as lucky at some point.

That's why I'm a big fan of NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission.

Among other tasks, it is going to catalog what objects are out there requiring potential "mitigation". ("Mitigation" equals "send Bruce Willis and his motley crew up there to take care of the thing".)

[Renderofveils]

Jupiter is quite figuratively a big vacuum cleaner. With its mass and gravitational tug it pulls quite a lot of “debris” into itself. Even the Patroclus and Menoetius comets became stuck in Jupiter’s Lagrange points.

[hoosierham]

I remember reading a science article which claimed that because of its size and large gravity sphere Jupiter basically sweeps up a lot of dangerous debris that would otherwise threaten Earth.