I need some more help with this...?

Question

I assume that the excessive amounts of hydrogen and helium from the solar winds would do in terms of necessary elements, yet I do not know how small a sun can be when created, can I make one smaller than my hand or what? again this is just theory, yet still how small can a sun or mini sun be?

Answer 1

Well, when stars form in our galaxy, they need to be at least 0.08 times the mass of our Sun or else they will never start hydrogen fusion - otherwise they become a brown dwarf.

(For those who don't know, the Sun's mass = 2x10^30 kg, that's 2 with 30 zeros after it.)

Answer 2

First, "solar wind" does not consist of hydrogen and helium, or any other matter, but refers to the force produced by the intense flow of photons--pure light--that radiates from the sun.

Second, the amount of heat and pressure required to start the fusion reaction that characterizes a star is many times what would be found in a large gas giant planet (for example, Jupiter). So creating a star is a process beyond human intention.

There's plenty of hydrogen and helium floating around in interstellar space, but none of it is anywhere within our reach.

Enjoy the sun we have. We are not likely to get another.

Answer 3

In order for thermonuclear fusion to occur, you need really hot temperatures. This is because all atomic nuclei are positively charged, and so they obviously repell each other. You have to get them going so fast that they can get close enough to each other for the nuclear strong force to take over, allowing them to fuse together. Furthermore, you must get enough of this hot matter to stay together long enough for a significant amount of fusion to occur. Gravity is something like 10 to the 27 weaker than electromagnetism as a fundamental force of nature, so that means you need a HUGE amount of mass to even come close to counterbalance the repulsive force of the hydrogen nuclei. It has been said that Jupiter is a "failed star" but this is kind of a misnomer. Jupiter would have to be at least about10 times more massive than it currently is in order to have enough heat and pressure at its core to begin fusion, and remember that Jupiter is already currently ~370 times more massive than the Earth. So the short answer to your question is that the smallest possible sun is approximately 10 Jupiters, something Astronomers call a "brown dwarf" star. However, strategies have been developed to allow fusion to occur on much smaller scales by we humans here on Earth. The main success so far is the "Hydrogen Bomb" which uses a regular atomic bomb to ignite and confine the fusion reaction. This stategy really works, and has been proven with multple underground tests in the US and Russia. The current research thrust is to accomplish fusion using magnetic confinement, but this has not been accomplished yet, to speak of. There is also a scheme to use high powered lasers to accomplish fusion on very tiny globs of frozen hydrogen "ice" which has had some limited success. If you count this, then maybe the answer to your question is: "smaller than a pinhead."

Answer 4

To get sustained nuclear fission and radiated visible light you need 75+ Jupiter masses. So I would say anything over approximately 75 Jupiter masses will give you the smallest sun possible.

Anything between 13 and 75 Jupiter masses although big enough for fusion to occur in the core really just gives off infrared light (hence the name brown dwarf) For visible light you need to get to the 75 Jupiter mass limit.

Answer 5

A black hole is a collapsed sun. In theory, it is smaller than an atom. However, it's mass may be many times the size of the sun.

Answer 6

Depends what you call a sun.
A sun is a continuous nuclear reaction, fusion reactor to be precise. They burn millions of tonnes of hydrogen and helium per second.
If you made a small one it will burn out real quick

Answer 7

Oooh lucky me I quoted it in my paper.

around 10 Jupiter masses (around 1.9*1028 kilograms [3]).

You need to be that large, it is thought, to begin nuclear fusion. Brown dwarfs (Failed stars) are "stars" that aren't that big so they are dim and cool, like big Jupiters (but are not planets because they form like stars).