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Sincere question: Anyone know what would be involved in igniting Jupiter, and what kind of heating that would provide to it's moons?

csunbird 7y ago
Throw in more mass, than it will ignite itself and be the second sun. Actually, when you think about it, Jupiter is a good candidate for a dyson sphere.
- robotresearcher 7y ago
  Jupiter is around 1/79 the mass of a red dwarf. So it’s only 1/79 better than empty space as a place to build your new star.
austincheney 7y ago
Combustion requires wholesale access to oxygen.
lend000 7y ago
I thought this was interesting so did a quick search: it does not look feasible [0]. Note: even if it were possible, the small relative increase in radiation received by Earth may have a butterfly effect similar to greenhouse gases and make global warming even more difficult to manage than it already is. [0] https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/776/can-jupiter-be-ignited https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/776/can-jupiter-...
Tepix 7y ago
By igniting I assume you mean nuclear fusion. Jupiter does not have enough mass. So what would it take? Transfering mass from the sun to Jupiter I guess. Not sure how much heating it would provide to its moons. It already provides an unhealthy amount of radiation.
bhaak 7y ago
Jupiter is not even a brown dwarf which starts at about 13 times the mass of Jupiter. For upgrading Jupiter to a star, it would need 80 times its current mass. There is nowhere else in the solar system enough mass to grow Jupiter but the Sun. Taking that mass from the Sun is in theory feasible but of course out of the range of our capabilities for quite some time. That's for natural nuclear fission though which would waste a lot of energy going into space and not where we would want to have it (the moons). It's probably more realistic to build small fission suns that orbit the moons that produce heat and light in a less wasteful, more directed manner. Still not possible today :-)
rayvd 7y ago
Just need a whole bunch of monoliths to up its mass...
RegBarclay 7y ago
You'd need a lot of monoliths.
m4rtink 7y ago
Oh well, there are ways. Let me introduce the Stellification Engine: https://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4a48d58c84350 https://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4a48d58c84350 A mass of self-replicating hot hydrogen dirigibles powered by fusion. They use part of the energy to stay afloat in the correct altitude and to repair and reproduce & radiate the rest outwards.

csunbird 7y ago

Throw in more mass, than it will ignite itself and be the second sun. Actually, when you think about it, Jupiter is a good candidate for a dyson sphere.

robotresearcher 7y ago
Jupiter is around 1/79 the mass of a red dwarf. So it’s only 1/79 better than empty space as a place to build your new star.

austincheney 7y ago

Combustion requires wholesale access to oxygen.

lend000 7y ago

I thought this was interesting so did a quick search: it does not look feasible [0]. Note: even if it were possible, the small relative increase in radiation received by Earth may have a butterfly effect similar to greenhouse gases and make global warming even more difficult to manage than it already is. [0] https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/776/can-jupiter-be-ignited https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/776/can-jupiter-...

Tepix 7y ago

By igniting I assume you mean nuclear fusion. Jupiter does not have enough mass. So what would it take? Transfering mass from the sun to Jupiter I guess. Not sure how much heating it would provide to its moons. It already provides an unhealthy amount of radiation.

bhaak 7y ago

Jupiter is not even a brown dwarf which starts at about 13 times the mass of Jupiter. For upgrading Jupiter to a star, it would need 80 times its current mass. There is nowhere else in the solar system enough mass to grow Jupiter but the Sun. Taking that mass from the Sun is in theory feasible but of course out of the range of our capabilities for quite some time. That's for natural nuclear fission though which would waste a lot of energy going into space and not where we would want to have it (the moons). It's probably more realistic to build small fission suns that orbit the moons that produce heat and light in a less wasteful, more directed manner. Still not possible today :-)

rayvd 7y ago

Just need a whole bunch of monoliths to up its mass...

RegBarclay 7y ago

You'd need a lot of monoliths.

m4rtink 7y ago

Oh well, there are ways. Let me introduce the Stellification Engine: https://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4a48d58c84350 https://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4a48d58c84350 A mass of self-replicating hot hydrogen dirigibles powered by fusion. They use part of the energy to stay afloat in the correct altitude and to repair and reproduce & radiate the rest outwards.