What happens when a rocky planet gets too big?

Question

"Portugese astronomers have presented findings indicating that they've detected an enormous rocky planet orbiting the star mu Arae. Scientists say that this planet is probably as large as a rocky world can become, roughly the size of the planet Uranus - about 14 times the size of Earth."

"this planet is probably as large as a rocky world can become"...

Before what? If one more meteorite hits it does it become a blackhole?

This is what I get for waxing scientific while drinkin'.

Answer 1

if a hughe ammount of rocks pile up onto each other the matter inside gets pressurized and heats up to temperatures that make those rocks melt.
you really need a mass roughly 1.3 times the mass of the sun to have enough gravitation to see it turning into a black hole.

If this would have happened to a planet within our solar system all other planetes including our sun would orbit THIS object. however it would produce an instability in the solar system, and we wouldn't have the planets as we know them.

before a massive rocky world would turn into a black hole it would heat up that much that its able to start fusion processes in its core, more or less creating a star with that.

so one more meteorite...would hit and and cause it to light that thingy up, for delivering the final degree temperature in its core.

Answer 2

Nothing alarming happens at 14 Earth masses. What the article means is that according to planet formation theories, rocky planets should not form with masses larger than about that much. When a planet gets big enough, you expect that it should attract a huge atmosphere of light elements like hydrogen and helium; that turns it into a gas giant like Jupiter. In order to keep that gas off your planet, you could put it near to the star; the heat would blow off the extra gas. But in this case, you would not expect there to be enough rocky material to make your planet very large. So between these competing effects, there is some largest size that a rocky planet can become, which is apparently around 14 Earth masses.

Answer 3

I too have asked this question and have not have been given a passable answer. people answer different aspects of the question yet kinda evade the authentic question. i haven't been advised precisely why a rock planet will not be able to get greater desirable than 15 earth hundreds. I comprehend the rigidity from gravity will warmth it up and soften it. yet i comprehend of comprehend reason there'll not be able to be multigenerational airborne dirt and dirt clouds of severe steel content fabric that would desire to supply finally a forged-iron nickel middle planet with 1000's of circumstances the mass of Jupiter. it may be molten of direction, however the gravity of molten fabric is the comparable as something and could proceed to entice remember and get greater desirable in length. yet, if the planet has an iron middle, and attained a mass equivalent to a brown dwarf action picture star, the item could be liquid, as a rule i think of, as its very own gravitational rigidity could forestall the boiling aside of the item, and if it did, it may nevertheless be there, albeit in an stronger quantity of vapor. yet assuming the gravity keeps it intact as a liquid merchandise because of fact the rigidity reached the fusion component, i will not be able to get a solution because of fact iron does not fuse, and the middle is iron. At this component in usual stars the nova starts off, yet what of this, already with iron and no thank you to fuse different aspects with the attainable pressures and temps? i think of you may purely have a warm liquid blob of superheated plasmas, caught at it modern-day state, except added remember is presented.

Answer 4

hmmm interesting perhaps if the planet were any bigger the gravitational force would be so great upon itself that it would implode?

Answer 5

Astroide or comet