jupiter turns to a star?

Question

As we know Jupiter is fully made of gas... mainly hydrogen.
So why does this hydrogren ignite and jupiter start burning like a Sun?
Whats stopping it?

Answer 1

You need a temperature of about 15,000,000 degrees Kelvin to start a full-fledged nuclear reaction in Jupiter. Gravitational impaction of hydrogen is causing some heat to be given off, but it is not nuclear. It is much too small. To get a nuclear reaction going and turn it into a star, Jupiter would have to be 80 times bigger than it is, although 13 times bigger would earn it the title of "brown dwarf". Lucifer, as in the film 2010: Odyssey 2, cannot exist, even if Von Neumann machines could be constructed.

Answer 2

Hydrogen doesn't really ignite. It's a matter of nuclear fusion. It takes extreme temperature and pressure to literally push the hydrogen nucleii close enough together to fuse into a larger nucleus. The pressure for fusion comes from the gravity of all the mass pressing the planet together. While Jupiter is big, it's only about 10% as big as it would need to be to support fusion.

Answer 3

If Jupiter were going to turn into a star it would have done so already. It can't because it doesn't have enough mass to produce the internal pressure needed to start fusion. I've seen varying estimates, but they all say Jupiter is too small, and would need to be twenty to eighty times more massive to become a star.

Answer 4

It's mass is not big enough to be a star. Stars do change in size as they go through fazes. Jupiter wil not get that big tho it changes sizes as well.

Answer 5

GOD