Was Jupiter once a micro solar system captured by our own bigger solar system?

Question

Imagen a small solar system (Jupiter a sun with its own small planets) crossing our path and captured by our suns gravitational pull.and is drained our burns out quickly.

Answer 1

Jupiter, while larger than all the other planets in our system put together, is still far too small to have ever been a star in its own rights. Furthermore, stars don't just "burn out". Depending on thier mass, they can undergo a number of different evolutions; many will go super-nova, spewing out unimaginable ammounts of heavy atoms and radiation, others will diminish into brown or whites "dwaves", still others will form black holes.

It might be possible (though incredibly unlikely) for a solar system to "ensnare" passing planetoids, but they would be unlikely to form stable orbits in the time that our solar system has been around.

It's an interesting idea, and although jupiter could never have been a star, it is proponderously unlikely, but not impossible, that it could have originated outside of our solar system.

Answer 2

If Jupiter were a sun and were captured by our sun it would not die. It would form a double star solar system, or a Quasar. Also the sun has elements in it's atmosphere like others of the Gass Giants such as Hydrogen and Helium. The reason for the many moons it has is due to it's positioning and great gravitational pull. The pull catches small rocks and they form a sort of Disk around the planet (like Saturns large rings). After a prolonged period of time the rocks join and fuse together and form a moon. Other theries suggest moons are infact asteroids captured by the planet.

Answer 3

No. Jupiter would need to be at least 15 times more massive to even be a brown dwarf, the smallest kind of star. Jupiters composition is also consistant with being created from the same material as the rest of our solar system.

Answer 4

Jupiter's mass is too small to become a sun. You could almost call it a brown dwarf. 50% of all stars in the Universe are in binary pairs, meaning that 2 stars rotate around each other. If Jupiter's mass were much larger it would have had enough mass in order to ignite into a sun.

Answer 5

Jupiter is not a sun. It never was. The gases frozen on the surface are all wrong for that. It could not have ever been a solar system.

Answer 6

Two suns tend to orbit a central point, rather than one orbit the other, in binary (and greater) systems. If Jupiter and Sol were orbiting a central point [a la Pluto & Charon], I'd be likely to agree with you, also assuming that Jupiter had the mass and chemical makeup necessary to become a star.

Answer 7

Not at all. Or else there wouldnt be any solar systems but ours: Most planets we have found (About 99.999999999999999999%, and estimated to be 95% of all planets) are gas giants, like Jupitur, that are Much larger (About 2x in size, at least) and alot hotter (1300F on the surface!!). Besides, when does a star have a rocky core? Impossible. I rest my case.

Answer 8

Eris, the largest dwarf planet known, was discovered in an ongoing survey at Palomar Observatory's Samuel Oschin telescope by astronomers Mike Brown (Caltech), Chad Trujillo (Gemini Observatory), and David Rabinowitz (Yale University). We officially suggested the name on 6 September 2006, and it was accepted and announced on 13 September 2006.

Answer 9

there was at one time in our solar systems infancy, another star within a 100 million miles give or take. which helped to create our planetary system. jupiter is def a failed sun, which at one point china considered igniting ;o) they do love their fireworks shows!
size? SIZE!? when our sun fails, it will be smaller than earth and still remain ablaze ;o)

Answer 10

I agree with all of the above Jules, Australia.