Could Jupiter become a star?

[Kyng]

As I'm sure most of you are aware, Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System. Indeed, the only larger body here is the Sun itself - which is a star. So, it's tempting to wonder: could Jupiter become a star? Some were worried that this might happen when the Galileo probe - with its plutonium reactor - was deliberately crashed into Jupiter - and obviously, it didn't happen then, but could it happen in the future?

Well, the short answer is 'No' . But the long answer is provided in the above video, by Fraser Cain:

• Jupiter is made of hydrogen. In order to turn it into a giant ball of fire, we'd have to have a load of oxygen. But we don't have that handy (and in any case, that "giant ball of fire" wouldn't be a star !)
  
  
• In order to turn Jupiter into a star, it'd have to become heavy enough and dense enough for the hydrogen around its core to fuse into helium. This is what happened with the Sun... but, the Sun is about 1,000 times more massive than Jupiter .
  
  
• Of course, the Sun isn't the smallest possible star. There are red dwarfs out there, with only around 8% of the Sun's mass. But that's still 80 times the mass of Jupiter... so, in order to have any hope of forming a star, we'd have to find 79 more Jupiters, and crash them into Jupiter .
  
  
• If that's still a bit too difficult, there is a middle ground between 'planets' and 'stars': brown dwarfs. These don't fuse hydrogen into helium, but they can fuse it into deuterium (and they emit some light and heat from this process). The smallest brown dwarfs have a mass around 13 times the mass of Jupiter... so, if we can find 12 more Jupiters, and crash them into Jupiter, we're good .

I hope you found this interesting - and if you have anything else to add, go ahead !

[ZandraJoi]

To answer we need to know the difference:
"Difference between Stars and Planets
Stars are huge celestial bodies made up of hydrogen and helium that can emit their light and energy from nuclear fusion reactions. Planets are celestial bodies that orbit around the Sun. They don't have the ability to emit light and energy from nuclear fusion reactions."
 
If Jupiter continues to orbit our Sun, then it will remain a Planet.
But is it that easy? lol

[Kyng]

To answer we need to know the difference:
"Difference between Stars and Planets
Stars are huge celestial bodies made up of hydrogen and helium that can emit their light and energy from nuclear fusion reactions. Planets are celestial bodies that orbit around the Sun. They don't have the ability to emit light and energy from nuclear fusion reactions."
 
If Jupiter continues to orbit our Sun, then it will remain a Planet.
But is it that easy? lol

Yeah, that's the other thing... even if we did somehow add enough mass to Jupiter to turn it into a star, it'd gravitationally destabilise the entire Solar System .

Jupiter would no longer orbit the Sun... instead, both Jupiter and the Sun would orbit a common centre of mass, as a binary star system . (What would happen to the Earth in this scenario is anyone's guess, but I don't expect it'd end well )