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Amusingly, astronomy sometimes seems to echo astrology, such as by saying things like Jupiter is a protector and gives gifts to us here on Earth. :-)

However, the other gas giants may have helped us as well (astronomically speaking). Even Saturn!

Quote:

"The new model suggests that any gas giant would send wet material hurling inward as a consequence of their formation. While massive Jupiter-sized worlds were the most effective, Raymond found that any sized gas giant could trigger the growth. That's good news for researchers hunting watery planets outside our solar system.

In our own solar system, the model shows that ices from the outer solar system snowed down on the Earth in three waves. The first came as Jupiter swelled up. The second was triggered during Saturn's formation. And the third would have occurred when Uranus and Neptune migrated inward before being blocked by the other two and sent back to the outskirts of the solar system."

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