Could Jupiter someday be artificially "triggered" into a star?

Question

Perhaps with a thermonuclear bomb near its core. Maybe this would produce enough localized heat for fusion. What mass of H would be necessary? And how would we get anything down that far into the atmosphere?

Answer 1

Jupiter simply does not have the mass to sustain fusion in its core. If it could be a star it would be.

A star 'ignites' when the pressure of its own mass compresses the core so much that fusion can take place. That same pressure stops the colossal release of energy from the fusion from blowing the star apart. Jupiter is far too low in mass for those kinds of pressures to exist in its core, and even if fusion were to take place there, it is too low in mass to stop the subsequent release of energy blowing it apart.

A thermonuclear bomb would not trigger fusion because (apart from being many billions of times too small) it would have precisely the wrong effect. It would simply blast the hydrogen away. A fusion bomb works by using explosives arranged in such a way as to comress a pocket of hydrogen in the centre to cause fusion. Anything outside the bomb is blown apart by the explosive energy release from that fusion.

And you couldn't get anything down far enough because it would be crushed as it descended. Since this would happen slowly, and only under the pressures already present within Jupiter, fusion would never be initiated.

It seems that scale is still underappreciated. Hurling the biggest fusion bomb we can currently make into Jupiter would be less effective than trying to blow up the Empire State Building with an indoor firework.

Answer 2

The answer is no.

But let's hypothetically say, you could, what would you gain? You would see it as a dim, red glowing object on earth.

Jupiter has a strong magnetic field that will probably not go away if it produces more heat. It might actually become stronger. At the same time the ionized atmosphere of the "star" would produce copious amounts of "solar wind" which would be trapped in its own magnetic field. That field is deadly enough as it is. If you charge it up by another order of magnitude or so, you could probably take daylight x-rays with your naked eyes on its inner moons. For thirty seconds, that is, after that you die of radiation burns.

Instead of the getting the famous "2010" scenario, all you would get is moons burning in the worst radioactive environment of the solar system. Great. I always wanted to have radioactive moons for Christmas.

Answer 3

Nope even with both gas giants combined into one massive super gas giant the odds of that happening aren't very good.

Answer 4

No, and your question makes zero sense.