Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 the Cretaceous period is generally thought to have been caused by the Cretaceous–Paleogene impact event, which created the Chicxulub crater, demonstrating that impacts are a serious threat to life on Earth. Astronomers have speculated that without Jupiter to mop up potential impactors, extinction events might have been more frequent on Earth, and complex life might not have been able to develop. This is part of the argument used in the Rare Earth hypothesis. In 2009, it was shown that the presence of a smaller planet at Jupiter's position in the Solar System might increase the impact rate of comets on
The Shoemaker and the Elves (film) The Shoemaker and the Elves (film) The Shoemaker and the Elves is a 1935 Color Rhapsodies short directed by Arthur Davis. It concerns a poor shoemaker who gives a little boy shelter from a storm. A homeless waif, staggering through a roaring snow storm, wanders into a small town and no one except a poor shoemaker will give the little boy shelter from the storm. That night, the elves come in with their equipment and material, and make a new supply of shoes for the old man. In the morning, seeing what has happened, the old man tells the boy