I've heard that Jupiter radiates 3 times as much energy as it receives from the Sun. This means that the planet has a great internal source of energy. Some astronomers think of Jupiter as a brown dwarf, or a star that failed, because of its small mass. That is, its mass was too small to produce the internal temperatures needed to set off the nuclear reactions that occur inside a star. However, if Jupiter were 100 times bigger that it is now, then it would be a star instead of a planet. Our solar system would have been a binary star system.
I do know that Earth would be bathed with nearly continuous sunlight as the Sun and Jupiter would be on both sides of the planet. But what else things would be if Jupiter were a star? How is that going to effect Earth's life? Would humanity survive as they do in reality, or something else completely different? What would become the rest of our solar system? I think that an alternate Jupiter is a cool sci-fi story that I would write for myself!
2007-05-04
15:29:50
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19 answers
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asked by
Erik G
4
in
Astronomy & Space