So if Jupiter imploded and turned into a star.....?

Question

*If Jupiter turned into a star, what size star would it become?
*Would it continue to rotate around the Sun? Or would it become stationary?
*What would the gravitational effect be, if any, particularly on Earth, but also on the other outer planets? Jupiter is about 4.2 AU away from Earth, but stars have a much higher gravitional force than planets, so that's why I'm wondering about that one.

Aaaactually -- I was asking because my roommate and I were watching "2010", and we recently watched "2001"! Thanks Lorenzo :)

Answer 1

The star would be a brown dwarf star, and still rotate about the sun. Actually, binary star systems are quite common.

If you assume Jupiter just ignited with the same mass it has now, there would be no change in gravity perturbations felt by earth, the other planets, and the asteroid belt.

For Jupiter to really ignite, it would have to be much more massive, and that mass WOULD be felt by earth.

Answer 2

Gravity would not be affected, since Jupiter would have the same mass as before. Gravity is affected only by mass, not size. So even if Jupiter imploded and ended up compressed to a much smaller size, all that would do is make it more dense - there is not actually more matter there than before. So, it would exert exactly the same pull on the sun and planets as before.

The reason stars have more gravitational pull than planets is because they have so much more mass than planets. Jupiter, which some people already consider a "failed star", would be be a very small star, many hundreds or thousands of times smaller than the sun. It is really too small to be a star - that's why it's not one already!

Since the gravity situation is unchanged, nothing gravitational would change here on Earth. However, having a new source of energy beaming down would alter our weather patterns, pretty drastically I'd think. All living things would be affected by a new, different day/night cycle or cycles, too.

Answer 3

if jupiter imploeded to become a star, it would still have the same total mass as it has now. Since it would have the same mass it would have the same gravitational pull as it does now and would still circle the bigger star with more mass. Earth would not have a mayor effect of that.

If it were to gain mass (a million astroids hit it or something) and would somehow come close to the mass of the sun then it would gain a bigger gravitational pull and the sun and the new star would start a dance aroud each other. The sun now rotates the center of the milky way, which has a HUGE black hole in it. the new twin stars would still be circulating that black hole as well.

Answer 4

The fusion doesn't occur on the surface of stars. And if there was enough pressure at the center of Jupiter to sustain fusion it already would. Jupiter's core was a lot hotter five billion years ago than you could raise the temperature to now with piddling atomic bombs. The pin point source of super hot gasses would dissipate in seconds to background. By the way, the useless eaters aren't useless. As good as the political class may be at manipulating people, if there is no one to manipulate the screwdriver all the handles will fall of the cabinets and the political class will starve to death because they can't get the forks out of the silverware drawer. Edit: Yea! Jason T.

Answer 5

Jupiter is 1/80th the mass it needs to turn into a star. The mass of Jupiter is about 0.077 times the mass of the Sun. It lacks the mass needed to heat the core enough for fusion to take place. So I guess you can rest easy.

Answer 6

There would be no change as far as orbits go. However since the smallest brown dwarf ever found is very dim and over 200 times the mass of Jupiter, it's pretty much impossible.

Answer 7

It would still rotate about the sun, but it would simply undergo fusion reactions and release radiation. There are binary star systems in the universe.

Answer 8

according to astrophysicists, they say Jupiter could have almost been a star, but didn't have enough talent (drum roll and cymbal clash), thank-you, (taking a bow)

Answer 9

and there we have the plot to "2001" "2010" and "3000."

Answer 10

I'm thinking if it has such high gravity it'll implode and become a giant black hole... haha, reminds me of my story The Day the World Imploded... haha... funny story.