How many more meteorites hit Jupiter, than us?

Question

In terms of catastrophic events, or total energy of collisions

Answer 1

Jupiter has been hit by the comet SL-9, which counts as catastrophic, I'm not sure how often Jupiter is hit by small meteorites, compared to Earth. I would imagine more though, considering it's larger gravity and location (in an area of the solar system that is denser with debris).

Answer 2

Since there is no way to sit and count them, If we considered what single event was the most catastrophic, I would have to say the collision of the comet Shoemaker/Levy.

Answer 3

Hi. Jupiter's gravity field is much larger and more intense that any body except the Sun. In 1994 a comet was torn apart by the gravity field and broke int may pieces, each of which hit the planet and each of the larger hits were easily visible fro Earth. My opinion is that many more hit which go undetected even though they are violent.

Answer 4

Jupiter has a radius of about 71,500 km while the Earth has a radius of about 6380 km. That makes Jupiter's cross sectional area about 125 times greater than Earth's. A random meteor has a 125 times greater chance of hitting Jupiter than Earth.

In the case of Earth, most meteorites burn up in the atmosphere and never reach the surface of the Earth. The total energy of collisions isn't lost since the energy goes into heating the atmosphere, but the number of actual collisions with the Earth's surface is reduced.

Jupiter is mostly gas and has little, if any surface area. I would assume that most meteors striking Jupiter would also burn up.

Answer 5

a lot more.