What would happen if Jupiter and Mercury switched places?

Answer 1

In random order:

1) Transits would become far more interesting. When Mercury passes in front of the Sun, it is a tiny dot, only seen by people who are really interested and with the proper equipment. Jupiter is almost 30 times larger so the "dot" would be a fair-sized disk.

This would have been more easily detectable by earlier astronomers and could have led to a better understanding of the real size of the solar system (forcing us to abandon the geocentric system a lot sooner).

2) So close to the Sun, Jupiter's atmosphere would not last very long; it would "boil" away. Being mostly hydrogen and helium, the molecules in Jupiter's atmosphere would gain speed (from the heat) and reach escape speed. As the atmosphere boils away, Jupiter's mass decreases and the escape speed gets smaller, making it easier for more molecules to escape (and so on).

3) while Jupiter is more massive, its tidal influence on the Sun would be much greater than it is now (tidal effects vary as the CUBE of the distance. Jupiter would be 13.4 times closer to the Sun; its tidal effect would be more than 2,400 times what it is now.

Would that make the sunspot cycle a lot more turbulent (and move it from 11 years to 88 days)?

4) For a given satellite around a planet, it is possible to compare the gravitational force that the planet exerts on it, with the force from the Sun.

Fj = G*Mj*m/d^2
Fs = G*Ms*m/D^2

Fj is the gravitational force exerted by Jupiter
Fs is the gravitaional force exerted by the Sun
Mj is the mass of Jupiter (317.8 times Earth's)
Ms is the mass of the Sun (332,946 times Earth's)

d^2 is the distance from Jupiter to the satellite.
D^2 is the distance from the Sun to a satellite (same as planet's distance from the Sun).

Presently D is 5.2 AU.
The new D would be 0.387 AU)

Jupiter in present position:

create a ratio by dividing Fj by Fs (G and m cancel out)

Fj/Fs = (Mj / Ms) * (D/d)^2

We want to know at what distance the forces are the same so we set Fj/Fs = 1.

1 = (317.8 / 332,946) * (5.2 / d)^2
1 = 0.0009545 * 27.04 / d^2

d^2 = 0.0258...
d = 0.16 AU = 24 million kilometres.

Where it is now, Jupiter's gravity is greater than the Sun's up to a distance of 24 million kilometres. This helps Jupiter hold on to a large number of satellites.

If we move Jupiter to Mercury's orbit, the mass ratio stays the same but the distance D drops from 5.2 to 0.387

1 = (317.8 / 332,946) * (0.387 / d)^2
1 = 0.0009545 * 0.15 / d^2

d^2 = 0.000143...
d = 0.012 AU = 1.8 million kilometres.

Jupiter might hold on to the Galilean satellites (the 4 larger moons; Callisto is just a little more than 1.8 million km) and four inner moons. The rest might be lost.

Even these would be subject to strong tidal influence from the Sun (the tidal effect does affect satellite orbits).

And, as Jupiter loses mass due to its atmosphere "boiling off", this distance over which its gravity is greater than the sun's will diminish...

5) Jupiter would disrupt the orbits of the terrestrial planets. Given enough time, Venus, Earth and possibly Mars would be either ejected from the solar system or crash into the Sun (or onto Jupiter).

Unless, of course, Jupiter's mass diminishes fast enough (number 2 above) to avoid our demise.

6) Mercury would be confused for a much larger asteroid, being in that much bigger "void" between Mars and Saturn. Without Jupiter to clean that areas of the system, the asteroid belt would be more spread out and Mercury would be inside it.

There would have been debate as to Mercury's status as a planet. In 2006, it might have been reclassified as a dwarf planet. The debate would have lasted longer because Mercury is 25 times more massive than Pluto and 4.5 times more massive than our Moon.

Answer 2

The question is not that simple to answer. For instance, have you looked at the Statistical comparison of these two planets? Jupiter has a radius about 32 times the size of Mercury. Mercury is only 57,910km from the Sun. Jupiter is a gas planet. I wonder what kind of reaction would occur putting a gas planet that large, that close to the Sun.

My guess is that the atmosphere would literally burn up! It would be cool to see happen though. The effect, however, might actually be hazardous to people living on Earth though.

Answer 3

Well comparing to other systems in the universe, more than likely the gas of jupiter would be blown away or consumed by the sun, and all that would be left is a core comparable to mercury today. As for as the mercury in the Jupiter position things might be more noticable. Lets just say you might have better opportunities of wishing on a passing star!

Answer 4

the gravitation is not only occured between sun and planet, but also planet and planet. Jupiter's mass is big and also sun's. the big mass and short distance to the sun can force Jupiter to go faster in its revolution or swallowed by the sun. Jupiter with its mass can also swallow Venus. besides if the mercury was on Jupiter place, it will escape from the sun's gravity if it goes on the same velocity as on its original position.

Answer 5

you'd probably see Jupiter boil it's atmosphere into space with the heat from the sun. This should make a fine tail pointed away from the sun as the solar wind whips it away. Mercury would be almost invisible from Earth and very cold.

Answer 6

"What if" questions like this are just impossible to answer, because one has to postulate the myriad events that would cause the "what if" scenario. The fact is that a gas giant cannot have formed so close to the sun in the first place, so the solar system would never have FORMED with Jupiter and Mercury switched. Since it couldn't have formed that way, we have to come up with a scenario that would cause the switch. Since no such scenario can be envisioned that doesn't result in the total destruction of both planets, and quite possibly the rest of the solar system, why bother even thinking about it?

Answer 7

Jupiter is made of gas, so not only it would get warmer, but it'd also expand. Mercury would be colder. Jupiter may get so big it'd be swallowed by the sun.

Answer 8

mercury would fly off into space, jupiter into the sun.

Answer 9

Well my uncle is Scorpio and he is a cameraman, but strangely he is not into photography. Another Scorpio I know is a biologist, he only takes photos of organisms under microscopes. I think photography is generally more suited to Pisces.

Answer 10

Sun would shift farther and we have move to Jupiter after learning to evolve to live breathing sulphur/CO2 and temperatures of 500 degrees celsius