What would happen if Jupiter becomes another sun?

Answer 1

First off Jupiter would NEVER EVER become another sun. Thats not how a star is made... And even if it were to some how defy all reality... We'd be toasted to death. I mean really, what would think would happen? Oooh a second sun, now we can make eggs twice as fast in the summer!

Answer 2

I was incredibly excited about this until I found out it is very unlikely.

"Although Jupiter would need to be about seventy-five times as massive to fuse hydrogen and become a star, the smallest red dwarf is only about 30% larger in radius than Jupiter."

And so they say, if Jupiter gained more mass, it would shrink considerably. I think how much heat this planet puts how, and how far it goes is incredible. But even if it became another Sun, it's still smaller than our Sun now, and probably follow it's gravity. If Jupiter does warp into another Sun, at least it will not effect us as human life will most likely have died out long before.

Here is an interesting link for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Jupiter

Answer 3

Two answers

First, Jupiter will stay what it, it won't grow into a star as the accretion process happened and ceased early in the star formation. Nothing will change when the star (and planets) is made.

Second, had solar system formed a little differently, there could well be a bigger companion to the Sun. In this case, we have a binary. We won't then have the nine planets solar system as we know it. In fact, binary is quite common. Some estimate that 70-80% of the stars are binaries, many just too far away for us to identify both of them

Answer 4

If Jupiter were to become a full-fledged star, this would mean that its mass has become approximately 80 times what it is now. This would put it at the lower limit of what can be a star.

It would be, relatively speaking, a faint star, red in colour. It would appear bright to us (comparable to the Moon, maybe?) simply because it is so much closer to us than other stars.

There would be some disruption to planetary orbits, but monor ones. Jupiter's effect on the Sun (e.g., wobble, sunspot cycle, tides on the Sun) would increase dramatically and it is difficult to predict what effect this would have on us (bigger magnetic storms? more X-Ray flares?)

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If you want Jupiter to become "another sun", then you have to multiply its current mass by a little more than 1,000. Then Jupiter would have an output of 3.85x10^26 Watts (like the Sun).

The flux we get from our Sun is 1,370 W/m^2

Jupiter, on average, is 5.2 AU from us (4.1 at its closest, 6.3 at its furthest). If we suppose that for a short period, these values remain true, we can estimate the flux we'd get from Jupiter to be (1/5.2)^2 that of the Sun.
(1/5.2)^2 * 1370 W/m^2 = 3.7% of 1370 W/m^2 = 50 W/m^2
(we would hardly feel the heat on our skin).

Still, Jupiter in the night sky, could reach magnitude -23, making it 10,000 brighter than the Full Moon.

Earth's average temperature would go up. To be at a balanced temperature, Earth has to emit as much energy as it receives.
Energy emitted varies as the 4th power of the temperature.
(therefore, temperature varies as the 4th root of the energy received)

4thROOT of (1370+50)/1370 = 4thROOT(1.0365) = 1.009

Our average temperature is presently close to 5 C (278 K). An increase of 1% means an increase of 2.78 degrees.

This is comparable to (but not greater than) some of the scenarios of Global Warming.

However, the bigger problem would be thast the centre of mass of the solar system would be halfway between the present Sun and the new Jupiter/sun. Any planet that is less than 20 AU from this centre could not remain on a stable orbit.

Our planet could become uninhabitable within a few generations. Only Uranus and Neptune could survive over the long-term (and, even at that, Uranus would be border-line). The rest of the planets would be ejected or thrown into one of the suns (may still take millions of years in some cases).

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In both cases, I've ignored the gravitational wave that would be created when Jupiter suddenly gains all this mass. The space time continuum might 'ring' for a while.

The intensity of the gravitational wave itself would depend on how fast this new mass is created. It may very well be, if the wave's 'attack' (the initial slope) is sharp enough, that minor bodies (like our Moon) would be shattered to rubbles (which means that most objects on Earth would be reduced to dust).

Answer 5

it is impossibe for Jupiter to become a sun because its mass is not enough to create the proper conditions for such a sun, But if jupiter hypatetcly became a sun then we would be very warm and very uncomfortable and depending on the mass of that sun it could potentially burn us up,,

Answer 6

Jupiter is a planet, so there isn't much chance of it becoming a sun.

Answer 7

Mars would have a temperature at the surface to 1,200 degrees F, so this planet will basically turn into vaporized gas.

Ditto for Saturn. It would also be very, very hot, and its rings would disappear completely.

Earth could heat up to twice as normal in temperatures, and that means my planet will be uninhabitable. All of the people on Earth would die of the heat and the planet will be exactly like Venus....with no people living.

Answer 8

Well with its smaller mass and less gravity it would effect the orbit of its moons, and the planets next to it but not much else, other than become really bright in the sky.

Answer 9

I guess we would have a solar system within a solar system seeing as though we would have 2 suns. Does walmart sell the industrial sized bottle of NoAD at SPF 1,000,000,000,000,000?!

Answer 10

there would never be night! `cause the real sun goes up at the real day but jupiter would come up at night and people would melt outside in the summer because it is already hot but that would be very hard to adapt and that is it for us! so hope you got wat yu wantd anyway good luck!