Question for the astrofurs.

[lionkingcmsl]

Here is something that crossed my mind last night:

If Jupiter is a "failed star", that didn't quite have enough mass to ignite, and we had the ability to tow Saturn to Jupiter, and have them merge "gently", would there be enough mass to "turn on" Jupiter, or has too much time elapsed and the conditions aren't correct any more to ignite a stellar furnace?

See, I told you I have estoric thoughts at times. :=3

Comments

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

*looks it up*

Saturn is only 1/3 Jupiter's mass. Adding it will still leave Jupiter with 1/750th the mass of the Sun. You'd have at best a brown dwarf.

[aj-hyena.livejournal.com]

Would that suffice enough though to screw -ourselves- up a little (sun at night or something)? Or would it still be too dim/distant to be seen?

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

No, it would not change much. Jupiter would be a little bigger so the spot in the sky would appear brighter. That's all. You need about 80 jupiters of mass to start fusion and make it a second sun. There isn't enough mass in all the planets combined to do that.

[nekura-ca.livejournal.com]

Brown dwarf stars start as around 13 Jupiter masses, and even then aren't really full stars. You need around 75-80 Jupiter masses to start hydrogen fusion.

[smrgol-t-kirin.livejournal.com]

So I guess if you threw in Uranus and Neptune plus whatever comets you came accross, you'd still not have enough.

We need a Monolith!

[kamau-d-lyon.livejournal.com]

As has already been said the mass would not be enough to form a star. We now have proof of such as some of the exoplanets have 4 to 10 times the mass of Jupiter an have not become stars. One is notable hot, some 1000 C, but not due to being a star which would obviously raise the temperature by a few powers.