Is Jupiter a failed star?

[lynyae]

I once saw a video of someone saying Jupiter is a failed star which also explains why its so massive. Is that true?

 

[Helio]

It’s hyperbole to grab attention, IMO.

As a protoplanet forming in a thick part of the early accretion disk, it grew quickly to a mass that allowed it to capture the great abundance of hydrogen. This is what the protosun was doing on or before this time.

But a star is the main collapsing part of the fragmented cloud. Planets are formed in the disks, though it’s common that other stars nearby will form, and are gravitationally attached.

There wasn’t likely enough mass in the disk to allow Jupiter to increase 25x in mass to become even a wimpy star.

This is also true, if one wishes to argue, that Earth is a failed star, but more so since it was too low in mass to hold hydrogen.

 

[CreatedEvolution]

maybe not by our calculations but if it does not have a dark side and is always glowing. perhaps an alien race on a dwarf star would consider it one. but my guess is no its not I always thought it was a gas planet until my adult hood I think its a giant regular planet with a lot of gas.

 

[AstroverseUnveiled]

I once saw a video of someone saying Jupiter is a failed star which also explains why its so massive. Is that true?

yes it is true , Jupiter could be second sun on our solar system , but it need 80% more mass , i made one video on it , while studying the topic , i have one funny thought , Jupiter is also our protector as it drag all the potential threats asteroids towards it, is there possibility one day Jupiter will achieve the correct mass to ignite ?

 

[Helio]

yes it strue , jupiter could be second sun on our solar system , but it need 80% more mass , i made one video on it ,

Deuterium burning would be around 13x, but such events don’t qualify for “stardom”. There seems to be some debate about the mass to secure stardom, though 60x seems to be the cut-off at exoplanet.com for an exoplanet. 80x (typo at 80%) looks pretty safe.

I always enjoy a colorful video. It was a little fast in tempo for me. [Nit— the Sun is void of any tint of yellow if viewed comfortably from space.]

while studying the topic , i have one funny thought , jupiter is also our protector as it drag all the potential threats asteroids towards it, is there possibility one day jupiter will achieve the correct mass to ignite ?

Some more recent work, IIRC, shows that Jupiter is more random in where it tosses incoming bodies, so it may not be the helpful Shepard we thought.https://youtu.be/gy5l6T6gxhY?si=Dk1hBhiJ9Z_FJqn0

 

[Explorer Official]

No, it's not. Jupiter would have to be 70-80 times more massive in order for it to be considered a brown dwarf (Failed star). Jupiter is large when compared to our solar system, but there are many exoplanets larger than Jupiter. I would say that Jupiter is not a failed star or close to being one.

 

[Explorer Official]

yes it is true , Jupiter could be second sun on our solar system , but it need 80% more mass , i made one video on it , while studying the topic , i have one funny thought , Jupiter is also our protector as it drag all the potential threats asteroids towards it, is there possibility one day Jupiter will achieve the correct mass to ignite ?

No, I don't think it's a failed star.

You called this a funny thought, so I'll take your statement lightly and just answer based on what I know and what I found online. Jupiter has to be 70-80 times more massive to be considered a brown dwarf. There is no way Jupiter is going to gain that much mass by eating asteroids or comets. According to NASA, all the comets in the solar system add up to less than 2% of the sun's mass But this is to account for comets between 80-100,000AU from the sun. The majority of which remain too far to be gravitationally affected by Jupiter. According to NASA again, a brown dwarf has less than 8% of the sun's mass.

I think it is safe to say that Jupiter isn't large enough to be considered a failed star or will ever gain that much mass by eating asteroids or comets. Can you share the video with me? I'm curious to what it says about Jupiter.