How does a sun form? Is it possible for a planet to become a sun?

Answer 1

The way most stars form is that there's a mass of dust, gas, and debris in a section of space such as a nebula.

Due to a disturbance such as an asteroid passing through the dust cloud it'll cause some of the dust to start to clump together. With gravity being a purely attractive force that's directly proportional to the mass of an object the small clump of dust will exert a slight gravitational pull on the surrounding environment.

More dust, gases, and small pieces of debris will be attracted to the small clump of matter which will increase in size over time. The larger it gets the stronger it's gravitational field will be, it'll start to attract hydrogen and deuterium which are very plentiful in space and it'll continue to get bigger. As it increases in size the gravity compresses the object more and more.

This in turn leads to it generating heat, it will start to spin as it attracts matter due to the matter striking it at different angles and matter passing by it and being pulled into its orbit.

Eventually enough heat and pressure are generated by the object that it will create a massive thermonuclear explosion and become a star. It'll have primarily hyrdogen as it's fuel source and it's core will start turning into helium as the by-product of hydrogen fusion.

A planet might possibly become a star if it's a gas giant and is large enough, but usually once a star forms, the resulting explosion of the star's birth will blow away any excess debris from the accretion disk that formed during the star's creation. With the remaining dust and gas and debris blown away it would be almost impossible for a gas giant to become large enough to become a star.

Answer 2

It's all to do with how much mass the body contains. As Cirric pointed out, something considerably larger than Jupiter is required.

There has to be enough gravity to squeeze the atoms so tightly inside the thing that nuclear fission takes place.

Note that there is enough gravitational pressure inside the Earth to make it very hot down there, but not nearly hot enough for Earth to emit radiation like a star.

Note that the sun is about 330,000 times the mass of the Earth and well over 1000 times the mass of Jupiter. That's why it is a star

In fact you cannot talk of sun and planets in one breath. The planets are simply remnants of the cloud of material that collapsed to form the sun. We live on a leftover piece of matter, just an after-thought.

Answer 3

There are actually two types of stars,the original stars that formed by the quantum effect some 100 million years after the universe came into existence.
These stars exhausted their fuel and exploded in about 10 million years.
The rocky debris exploded outward in all directions and eventually crashed into the surrounding hydrogen field.
A giant smoke ring was produced pulling the hydrogen cloud together and flinging the rocky material away from the forming star.
The rocky material formed planets and the hydrogen field produced the sun.

Answer 4

A start forms in dense clouds of molecular gas - whici is mostly hydrogen. Gravity pulls the gas toward the center of the cloud and attracts even more gas in teh neighborhood of teh cloud. As the mass builds, so does the gravitational force so more matter is absorbed. Now the gas near the center is under increasing pressure being squeezed by all the matter around it, and it gets hotter. The heat causes the hydrogen atoms to move faster and faster (they gain more and more kinetic energy). Eventually, the atoms have enough energy so that the electrical repulsion between the protons of the hydrogen nuclei is small compared to the kinetic energy and nuclear fusion ensues. The star starts burning hydrogen making helium and heavier elements. At the same time, it is still absorbing the remaining gas in the cloud. Eventually, the star falls into a sort of equilibrium - hydrogen being burned at the core and heat and light escaping.

Answer 5

A sun forms from loads of gas.
Yes, it is possible for a planet to become a sun, but only if there is no longer a star in the middle, and it is flung into a planetary nebula, where it can gather more mass and gas and ignite.

Answer 6

Swirling gases and elements combine through gravity, which pulls them over millions of years closer and more compact, until the pressure is so great that a nuclear reaction begins and starts a 'sun.' A planet made of hard rock would never become a sun, and gaseous ones are usually made of leftover star matter, so they wouldn't become stars either.

Answer 7

Planets are far too small to become suns.

It is thought that gases and dust are attracted into a ball by gravity over billions of years, eventually reaching a great enough size to cause the enormous heat inside a sun.

Answer 8

The sun was formed alongwith various other planets, including earth and the moon. In the universe, the Lord has created various other planets including many suns, moons. They are visible when you go within too!

Answer 9

Hi. A star forms when enough gas, mostly hydrogen, collects. A planet such as Jupiter would become a star in enough gas collected (about 80 times it's current mass).

Answer 10

Hubble telescope has captured suns (stars) developing.
http://www.klab.caltech.edu/~ma/Hubble.jpg