In a sense. As you seem to know, the effect of gravity is governed by mass and distance, so the overall effect they fell on one another depends on where they are in their orbit (which itself is dependent on time). Over the course of many orbits, they effect each other with greater or lesser effect at different points in time.

Over the course of billions of years, these small effects have a pretty major outcome. It's most noticeable in the early years of the solar system's history, when things are whizzing around in strange orbits, but by the time you get to the age of our star (~5 billions) everything is pretty comfortable, and you end up with regular, most circular orbits on the same plane.

Jupiter is sometimes called the 'shepherd' of the solar system, though; because gravity actually has an infinite range, the very (very) small effects that Jupiter has on miscellaneous things whizzing around /through /past our solar system means that it eventually tends to attract asteroids, comets and so on.

One theory is that many of the near-Earth comets that we see (Halley's comet, Hale Bop etc.) were pulled out of a massive field of icy objects that exist wayyyyy beyond Pluto by Jupiter's gravitational field. Another is that the Moon was formed by Jupiter, in the very early universe, effectively catapulting a proto-planet out of the asteroid belt. The asteroid belt itself exists as three groups of rocky objects that congregate at special points between the Sun and Jupiter, having been pulled there over many eons since the beginning of the solar system.

But yes, detour aside: gravity is the weakest force in the universe that we know of, but over extremely long periods of time it has the most dramatic effect on the structure of the universe (all the way down to the biological level, below which chemical and physical processes are dominated by other natural forces).

In a sense. As you seem to know, the effect of gravity is governed by mass and distance, so the overall effect they fell on one another depends on where they are in their orbit (which itself is dependent on time). Over the course of many orbits, they effect each other with greater or lesser effect.

Over the course of billions of years, these small effects have a pretty major outcome. It's most noticeable in the early years of the solar system's history, when things are whizzing around in strange orbits, but by the time you get to the age of our star (~5 billions) everything is pretty comfortable, and you end up with regular, most circular orbits on the same plane.

Jupiter is sometimes called the 'shepherd' of the solar system, though; because gravity actually has an infinite range, the very (very) small effects that Jupiter has on miscellaneous things whizzing around /through /past our solar system means that it eventually tends to attract asteroids, comets and so on.

One theory is that many of the near-Earth comets that we see (Halley's comet, Hale Bop etc.) were pulled out of a massive field of icy objects that exist wayyyyy beyond Pluto by Jupiter's gravitational field. Another is that the Moon was formed by Jupiter, in the very early universe, effectively catapulting a proto-planet out of the asteroid belt. The asteroid belt itself exists as three groups of rocky objects that congregate at special points between the Sun and Jupiter, having been pulled there over many eons since the beginning of the solar system.

But yes, detour aside: gravity is the weakest force in the universe that we know of, but over extremely long periods of time it has the most dramatic effect on the structure of the universe (all the way down to the biological level, below which chemical and physical processes are dominated by other natural forces).