Second Star?

[jgrtmp]

Sorry about the bad stat on Jupiter's mass in solar masses. What you do need to realize is Jupiter isn't exactly stable. Remember it's eye & ponder on that convolution. Then it radically started to change, even in respect to its location to the meridian. I'm not an expert on this as you have all seen, but the power behind this & the coriolis force involved is a classic for any planetary techtonic who wants to find a case study. We are fortunate to have such a presence within the Solar system to study by & learn from.

 

[yevaud]

So then it wouldn't even be a Red Dwarf but something else entirely since it's unnaturally a star even though its too small and massive to be one?

I'm truly not certain what such an animal would be determined as. A sub-Solar fusion event? Clearly it's possible - and Clarke noted in the novel that it would only last for 1,000 years, which isn't a typical lifespan for a small star - so it's a self-sustaining fusion reaction of some sort.

 

[AntiHelium]

I'm not sure why, but I always thought Saturn was bigger than that.

In fact, back when I was younger, I read in an old Solar System book that Saturn was almost equal to Jupiter in mass. That book must have been either fake, or old.