Asteroids, believed to have wiped out Dinosaurs from Earth 65 million years ago.

Jupiter is about 5 astronomical units (AU) away from the Sun - far enough away from Earth to not have interfered with the development of our planet, and yet close enough to gravitationally deflect asteroids and comets, limiting the number of dangerous impacts.

Without Jupiter, instead of being hit with a killer asteroid every hundred million years or so, we’d get one every 10,000 years. This reduction in impacts enabled the Earth to develop both simple and complex forms of life.