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Could Jupiter turn into a star? · Daniel and Kelly’s Extraordinary Universe

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Hey, Daniel, do you ever think about what the night
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: sky looked like to our ancestors? I do. I wonder
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: how it looked at them. And I also like thinking
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: even further back in the past, like what did the
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: dinosaurs see in the sky? Yeah, they probably should have
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: looked at this guy more carefully, you know, looking for
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: meteors for example. I know dinosaur astronomers totally fell down
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: on the job, but you can even think further back,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: like the first eyeballs on Earth five million years ago,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: you mean, like microbe astronomers, or you know, I think
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: to the future. I wonder what the night sky will
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: look like to humans billions of years from It could
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: be totally different. I mean, if there even our humans
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: then yeah. Well I'm thinking about the future cockroach astronomers
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: and hoping they will keep an eye on the stars
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: for us. Whatever they see doesn't bug them. I am
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: more hamming cartoonists and the creator of PhD comics. I'm Daniel.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I'm a particle physicist. And that was the first time
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: I ever said cockroach on the podcast and astronomers in
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: the same sentence Publicly. I love astronomers, I love astronomy.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: I'm nothing but pro astronomers. I did like the idea
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: of dinosaur astronomers. That's pretty cool. My favorite story about
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: dinosaur astronomers is that they really did have a chance
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: to save themselves. Your favorite I feel like you thought
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: about this before. Well, yeah, absolutely. You know that the
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: meteor that came and wiped out the dinosaurs made a
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: near past by the Earth ten years earlier, Yeah, and
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: came close enough that they should have been able to
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: look up and see it in the sky. So if
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: they had funded their version of NASA, they could have
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: saved their own lives ten years. Do you think dinosaurs
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: could have built spaceships? And necessity is the mother of invention, right,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: do you think they should have called the dinosaur Bruce
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Willis put them on a spaceship and getting to deflect
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: that asteroid in ten years? Well, you know the other
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: option is what happened, So anything is better than that.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: But anyways, welcome to our podcast. Daniel and Jorge talk
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: about dinosaur astronomers. That's all we do. Daniel and Jorge
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: digress in the very first moments of the podcast. That's
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: right now. Welcome to our podcast. Daniel and Jorge explained
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: the universe a production of I Heart Radio in which
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: we talk about all the amazing and beautiful and crazy
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: things about the universe, the violent events, the incredible drama
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: happening in the inside of stars, the tiny little particles
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: that apparently make up everything you see and touch and taste. Yeah,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: all of the spacey stuff out there, happening in the
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: universe and even in our own backyards, or I guess
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: our solar system backyard. That's right, because when you look
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: out into the night sky, you are not seeing a
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: still picture. You are not seeing a flat image. You
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: are seeing a drama unfolding on cosmic distance sales and
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: time scales. If you were to look at the night
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: sky sped up a little bit, you would see incredible events,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: huge explosions, massive collisions. It would put Hollywood to shame.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: It's like a cosmological telenovella, a lot of twists and turns.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: I don't know if anybody's really like backstabbing anybody, or
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: does the Earth have an evil twin on the other
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: side of the Sun Planet X Extreme close up. I
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: don't know if there's so much political intrigue, but there
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: is definitely drama. There are things that happened rapidly, all
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: of a sudden. There are sudden changes of fate. There
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: are things that are happening, and so I think it's
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: fun to think about how our solar system will evolve. Yeah,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: because as we as humans found out about a hundred
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: years ago, the universe is not static. Things are changing.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: The stars are moving, the galaxies are blazing across the universe,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: and new stars are being born all the time. That's right.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: And stars can change right there, formed from the collapse
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: of gases into a hot dense object that confuse eventually
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: to and into something else like a black hole or
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: a white dwarf. They go through this evolution, and so
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: it's natural to also wonder, like what about planets? Do
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: planets have future stages in their evolution? Are they like Pokemon?
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: They can evolve into different versions. They say that Earth
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: is only stage one. I don't know enough about Pokemon
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: to even really make that joke. I just watched my
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: kids play, so I can say energy cards and pokemons evolved.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Then we're at the end of my knowledge. I think
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: our planet is Earth type. Is it an e X
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: or a g X? Does it have the shiny glint
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: on it? It used to. I think that's right. And
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: we did a podcast recently in which we talked about
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Jupiter and how close Jupiter was to having become a star,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: and a bunch of listeners wrote in asking us about that.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Jim Sanchez, Doug Dodds, and Ryan Kyrkiss all wrote and
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: asked us like, well, is Jupiter on the verge of
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: becoming a star? Could it one day eventually become a star?
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Because I guess it's kind of a fine line between
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: the being a giant cloud of dust and being a
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: giant gas planet and maybe being a giant ball of
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: flaming gas like the Sun. It's kind of a fine line.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: It turns out. How final line is it either on
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: fire or you're not? That seems pretty clear cut to me. Well,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: I mean what does it take, like a match or
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: you know, a spark. I guess that's the question we'll
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: be talking about today. That's right. So to the other program,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: we'll be asking the question could Jupiter become a star?
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Is it too late for Jupiter or can it still
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: you know, find the right role and suddenly be the
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: new darling of Hollywood. Hey, you know, jump on the
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: TikTok and anybody can become a star. Oh hey, that's
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: what Jupiter needs. That's right. But there was some actual
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: serious talk about this. A couple of decades ago. NASA
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: sent a probe out to study Jupiter, and they didn't
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: want the probe to infect any of Jupiter's moons where
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: we think there might potentially be life, right, my crobial life.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: And we didn't want to cray Galileo this probe onto
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: any of Jupiter's moons because we didn't want to bring
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: any earth microbes. Right, once you bring Earth's microbes, you
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: can no longer ask like are their native microbes? And
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: so instead they crashed the probe into Jupiter itself because
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: we don't care about infect the Jupiter. I think the
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: idea was that it would burn up and get crushed
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: because Jupiter has this incredible atmosphere, so we get immolated
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: in descent, whereas the moons don't have those atmospheres, and
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: so it would actually land on the surface and potentially survive.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: But there was some concern about that. Yeah, people were wondering, like,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: if Jupiter is on the verge of becoming a star,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: if it's this huge ball of gas and you drop
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: a match into it essentially, is there impossibility that it
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: could have ignited the atmosphere or Jupiter and birth a
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: new star, because I mean Jupiter. If you think about it,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: it's a giant ball of hydrogen, right, kind of like
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: the Hindenberg. Kind of like the Hindenburg, but much bigger.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: That's what I mean. It's like the big balloon made
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: out of hydrogen and all you need is a little
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: flame and some oxygen. All of a sudden, it sounds
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: very unstable, does it sounds like a nine twenties idea? Yeah?
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: And you know this actually appears in science fiction as well,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: in the well known series two thousand and one, two
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: thousand ten, etcetera. They turn Jupiter into a star on purpose. Yeah,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: on purpose, I guess. You know. The aliens. We didn't
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: really ever understand their psychology, but they turn it into
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: a new star. They call it Lucifer. The Aliens call
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: it Lucifer. I don't remember the details that book. Who
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: calls it Lucifer, Whether it's the aliens naming it or
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: you know, earthbound cartoonists who are elected to a naming
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: committee who gave it that name. But I do remember
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: the sequel to two thousand and one two thousand and ten.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: I think that that the end, Jupiter does become a star.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Sorry spoiler um, because the star at the end of
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: that movie. And I was wondered, like, oh, that's pretty interesting,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: but what does that mean? Is that going to change
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: our solar system or what's the big deal? Yeah? Exactly,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: So it's an interesting question. It's right here in our backyard.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: It seems relevant. So we thought we would try to
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: figure out how close is Jupiter to becoming a star?
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: If you wanted to turn it into a star, what
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: would you have to do? So, as usual, Daniel went
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: out there into the wilds of the Internet and ask
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: people to submit their answer to the question could Jupiter
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: become a star? That's right, So thank you to everybody
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: who participated, And if you'd like to participate in future
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: rounds of person on the Internet interviews, please send us
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: a note to questions at Daniel and Jorge dot com.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: We'd love for you to answer our questions. And before
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: you listen to these answers, think about it for a second.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Do you think Jupiter could become a star. Here's what
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: people had to say. I think anyone who claims to
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: know where the Jupiter can turn into a star. Absolutely
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: is probably exaggerating their knowledge in order to make up
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: one last say. I think Jupiter is like a filed
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: star because it's not massive enough to have the fusion
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: reactions at the cool The only way I can think
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: of that it could become a star would be if
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: it pulled in enough matter. Well it didn't for our reason,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: I suppose not enough mass um. I didn't hear that
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: almost became a star. Well, well maybe it's if a
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: lot of planets I think the universe is are unlikely
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: to happen, But it happened, So perhaps it's just as
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: unlikely that Tupiter would turn into a star. But I
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: suppose it could happen. Yeah, what kind of what kind
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: of start? Jupiter is a gas giant and it's made
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: of gas, and stars are also made of gas. So
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: I think maybe if a small star came into it.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: I suppose if it became big enough and had enough gravity,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: it could turn on and become a star. But I'm
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: not aware that it's so it's growing. My short answer
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: is I don't think so. Yes, I think that it's
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: eight times more massive that it would need to become
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: in order for Jupiter to start burning hydrogen and fusing
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: it into helium. But even if you were to combine
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: all the planets in the Solar System, you wouldn't get
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: to the mass needed. So by natural means, no, it's
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: not possible. But theoretically could Jupiter become a star? Then yes,
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: you just need to add eight more jupiters to it.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: If Jupiter's ape does extremely well, I think Jupiter might
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: be able to become a starmp if anyone could be
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: a start with. Oh my gosh. I believe that the
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: gas giants have cleaned up our Solar system enough that
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: it is unlikely that Jupiter would be able to get
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: enough mass to turn into a star. Well, theoretically possible
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: in time. I think the way that it might happen
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: is maybe if there are a rogue planet that collided
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: with Jupiter or sufficient other material like comets and asteroids
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: and so on, But that seems implosible. Alright. Some great
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: answers I like the one that said yes, I mean no, wait,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: what's the star? If you're not going to be accurate,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: you should at least be well. I guess that perfectly
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: reflects how I feel. I'm like, yes, no, wait, let's
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: define a star. Yeah. I think it is an interesting
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: question because you know, different stuff out there have evolutions,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: you know, we see stuff changing in the universe, and
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: we haven't ever talked about the question of like, is
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: a planet stable? Could a planet just hang out forever
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: or does it have the next natural stage in its evolution? Yeah?
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Is this possible that we suddenly have two stars in
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: our sky? You know, kind of like star wars? Yeah?
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: What would that mean for when you have to go
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: to work and abaly make our days longer? Yeah, it
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: would make our days longer and much more irregular. Right,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: you wouldn't have regular patterns. You have times when both
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: stars were in the sky and times when only one
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: of them was in the sky. Have you ever read
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: the three body problem? You know, the calendar on that
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: planet is very complicated. All right, let's jump into it, Daniel.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: What makes something a star versus a planet? I guess
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: let's start with that question. What happens at that fourth
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: in the road for a big ball of gas where
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: it turns into a jupiter, or it turns into a star,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: and or can it kind of switch over? Yeah? So
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: really it's all about mass, Like if you are a
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: big enough blob of stuff, then gravity will pull you
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: in and compress you hard enough that you will start
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: to fuse. You'll create the conditions necessary to squish these
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: particles together so they fuse, which releases a huge amount
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: of energy. And that's really the distinction between a planet
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: and a star. A star is using, it's releasing energy,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: it's burning itself, and a planet is much more inert
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: than no fusion happening at the center of the Earth
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: or at the center of Jupiter, for example, And that's
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: just because we don't have enough stuff, Like if we
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: had more stuff, it would be heavier, and things get
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: more compressing you sort of get to that pressure where
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: fusion happens. That's right. It's all about the stuff, and
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: it depends on which kind of stuff. Like if you're
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: just hydrogen, just gas, then you need less stuff. Then
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: if you're like a huge ball of oxygen or carbon,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: because the heavier elements take higher pressure or higher temperature
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: conditions in order to fuse, So hydrogen is the easiest.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: So if you're gonna go all hydrogen, you need a
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: big ball of gas. If you're gonna go all carbon
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: or all oxygen or something heavier, you need a bigger bone.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: But in principle, if you took the Earth and made
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: it much more massive, same stuff, same mixture of stuff,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: it would turn into a star. Wow, how much more stuff?
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: I guess? I guess The question is what does it
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: take to be a star? How much stuff do you need?
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: And we can think about it in terms of like
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: pounds or kilograms or squirrels, but those units are hard
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: to grasp because the numbers are so big. Let's just
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: talk about in terms of stuff. So let's talk about
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: in terms of units of like one sun. So the
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: minimum amount of stuff you need to reach any sort
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: of fusion is about one one of the mass of
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: the sun of our son, of our son. Yeah, we're
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: using our suns as a unit. You could have something
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: one one of our sun and it could be a star.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: That's right, And that's only like really special. That's the
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: absolute minimum. It gets you above the shelf for the lowest, weakest,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: lamest kind of fusion. And if you reach that threshold,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: you're called a brown dwarf. And it's a special kind
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: of fusion. It's not just hydrogen fusion. It's deuterium fusion
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: and deuterium, if you remember, is an isotope of hydrogen,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: and the nucleus you have a proton and a neutron,
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: not just a proton, and that neutron is crucial because
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: it helps sort of bring those protons together and stick
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: them together. I see, um, that sounds small, like one
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: hundreds the size of the Sun. But that's it like
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: what like ten earth? That's yes, something like ten thou earths.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: It's a lot bigger than the Earth, and so it's
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: not that small, all right. I mean, it's small compared
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: to our Sun, but it's a big object. And they're
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: called brown dwarfs, but they're pretty badly named because they're
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: not actually brown. They're not actually dwarves if they're ten
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: thousand earths. Also, so two strikes there for the physics
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: community in one name their dwarfs compared to the other stars.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: But they don't look at all brown. They look magenta
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: or like orange red. And that's just because the kind
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: of fusion that happens in the kind of light that
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: they admit I see. But they're still sort of big
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: balls of fiery stuff. They just they don't glows brightly
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: and they're kind of tinged in a certain color, and
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: these things exist and they're not that rare in the universe.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Is one like six and a half light years away
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: from us. It's called Luman sixteen. And so they're not
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: that easy to see because they're not that bright. But
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: you know, theoretically we understand that they should exist and
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: we see them out there, and so this is totally
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: a possibility. It's the minimum threshold to become a star.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: And then those are the smallest stars. So then what's
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: the next step up? Next step up is you know,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: really you might call the first kind of real star,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: and this is a red dwarf, a brown dwarf. People argue, like,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: you know, is it a big, hot burning planet. Is
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: a star that's you know, it's kind of lame, but
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: a red dwarf nobody argues about, Like, it's definitely a star.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: It burns hydrogen. Like essentially, this is the minimum star
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: you need if you just start from hydrogen. If you
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: have one tenth the mass of the Sun and a
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: huge ball of hydrogen gas, gravity will pull it together
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: and squeeze it hard enough for it to fuse fuse.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: But in a brown star, there's no fusion. There is fusion,
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: but it's deterior and fusion. It's not hydrogen fusion. A
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: brown star is not hot enough to fuse hydrogen. You
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: need that extra neutron in the nucleus to make the
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: fusion happen, and so the fusion doesn't release as much
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: energy either. There's sort of like a cooler, weaker lam
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: or kind of fusion, but it's still fusion. It's just
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: kind of an easier fusion. It's easier and it's not
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: as dramatic. It doesn't produce as much energy. So that's
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: why the brown dwarfs aren't so luminous. All right. So
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: then when you get to one tenth of the mass
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: with the Sun, then you get the real cooking coin.
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: That's right, that's a legit star. It's a red dwarf,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: and you know there's one that's only six years away.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: It has a name that's all like letters and acronym,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: so it's totally unpronounceable. But the cool thing about it
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: is that it's really dense, like it has one tenth
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: the mass of the Sun, but it's radius it's the
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: same as Saturn. Wow, So it's tiny, but it's it's compact.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: It's a little dwarf. It's a little red dwarf. It's
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: perfectly named and is it red? So there you go
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: to check marks for the astronomy community terms. You're you're
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: up to zero then zero zero zero physicists, this is
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: zero public. But you know, something the size of a
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: planet can definitely be a star. That's not an issue.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: It's not just about size, it's about mass. Remember, gravity
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: will gather this stuff together and make it really dense
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: for density. Yeah, all right, well it's clear that things
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: about the size of planets can become stars. And so
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: now let's talk about Jupiter and whether Jupiter could or
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: could have become a star. But first let's take a
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: quick break. All right, Daniel, we're talking about making a
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: star in our own backyard. So what do we need?
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: A grill, some matches, a lot of flower which is
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: on short supply. Oh no, better order a crate of it.
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: All right, So let's we're talking about whether Jupiter could
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: be one day become a star, which is a crazy idea.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: But you're telling me that it's all about the stuff.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: You have enough stuff and you're compressed enough, then almost
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: anything can become a star. Yeah, And so let's talk
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: about Jupiter. How how massive is Jupiter. Jupiter is about
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: one tenth of one of the mass of the Sun,
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: so one of the song Okay, so it's it's ten
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: times too small to be a brown Earth. Yeah, I
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: remember the threshold is one hundred of the Sun for
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: a brown dwarf, one tenth of the Sun for a
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: red dwarf. And so Jupiter it's ten times too small
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: to be a brown dwarf and a hundred times too
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: small to be a red dwarf. And it's made out
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: of roughly the right stuff. It's mostly hydrogen. It's just
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: not big enough icy and you need that stuff because
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, while you like, the Earth could become a
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: star if you compress it down enough, but there's nothing
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: really compressing the Earth that much except for its gravity,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: and so without that stuff to create the gravity, you
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: can't turn into a star. Yeah, the Earth is like
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: one three hundred thousand's the size of the Sun, and
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: so we're nowhere near massive enough to ever become a star.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Jupiter is like it's in within shouting distance, you know,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: like ten times too small to be a pathetic little
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: brown dwarf is like it's you know, ten times. It's
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: not a small thing to overcome, but it's still ten
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: times too small. Like that doesn't seem likely to happen
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: anytime soon. No, And Jupiter is already really big, right,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: So it sends the In order for Jupiter become a star,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: you have to multiply its mass by a factor of ten.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: That means like gather nine more jubiters somewhere somehow and
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: added to junior. Al Right, well, it doesn't sound very
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: likely then that Jupiter is going to turn into star.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Why was NASA worried about it years ago? You know,
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: I think they just thought that crashing a probe into
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: it could spark a reaction. You know, the process we're
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: talking about, a sort of a natural gathering due to gravity.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: You know, the Hindenburg went into flames without being the
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: mass of the Sun, and so people were just worried
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: that adding a spark to a ball of gas could
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: potentially ignite it. But I think that was a small
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: community of paranoid voices inside NASA, and most people weren't
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: too worried. But you know, if you know the story,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: we were worried about igniting the atmosphere when we tested
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: the first atomic bomb in New Mexico. Really, yeah, that
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: was a possible concern. Yeah, before they tested it, they
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: did the calculations and they couldn't rule out igniting the atmosphere.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: But you know, they went ahead and tried it. Anyway,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: what's the worst that can happen? So it's not just
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: particle physicists that are potentially ending the world. Okay, oh good,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: it's other kinds of physicists, that's right, and even ending
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: potentially other worlds. Yeah. So if you wanted to turn
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: Jupiter into a star, you'd have to somehow gather these materials. Yeah,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: let's talk about that. If you're an alien in the
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: Arthursday Clark novel, how would you do it? Well, you know,
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: where can you get these materials? Like, what is the
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: source of raw materials you need to turn Jupiter into
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: a star. There's really the biggest things in the Solar
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: system are the Sun and Jupiter, and after that everything
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: else is a tiny detail. So the only place to
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: get this up is from the Sun. So you have
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: to basically steal from the Sun, siphon off a huge
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: amount of matter, and you know, feed that into Jupiter somehow. Really,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: there's not enough gas floating around or asteroids floating around
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: to kind of feed Jupiter. There's only a tiny little
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: bit of gas and asteroids. Most of the stuff is
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: coalesced into the Sun and into Jupiter. And you know,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: even Jupiter is like a tiny fracture. Remember it's one
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: one thousands of the mass of the Sun. So if
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: you like made a bar chart of all the stuff
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: in this solar system, it would basically just be the
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Sun and then you know, a few crumbs. So Jupiter
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: is just like the biggest crumb, and after that there's
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: basically nothing of note. Al Right, So you would need
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: Jupiter to be ten times bigger, and so maybe let's
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: talk about how that would look like, Like, let's say
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: we increase the massive Jupiter by two how would it
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: look different. It wouldn't have enough energy to fuse, right,
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: and so it just looks like a bigger Jupiter. It
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: just you know, be bigger and fatter, and it would
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: have just as many crazy storms, but really no fundamental change.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: It might emit more radiation because it would have more
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: activity in the interior do the increased pressure, Like the
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: surface would look sort of the same, would just be bigger.
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: It would just be bigger yeah, and the service would
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: look sort of the same. But we don't really understand jupiters,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: like cloud patterns and what's going on there, the crazy vortices,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: the red spot. That's the kind of thing we don't understand.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: And if we preet Jupiter's mass, then all the features
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: that contribute to that craziness would be doubled, and so
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: we'd probably get it, as you know, twice as many
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: bands and much more craziness, and maybe the red spot
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: would be even more insane. Right, But there are a
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: lots of questions about these gas giants. Remember, Saturn has
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: a hexagon on his north pole that we don't understand either, Right.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: We did a whole podcast about that mystery. It would
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: be a fascinating experiment to do to double the massive
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Jupiter and just see what happens, Like, hey, turn that
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: knob and see how crazy these planets get. Yeah, let's
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: do it, Daniel, Okay, I'll write a proposal. What's the
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: worst that can happen? Well, what what would be happening
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: on the inside, Like I know that the inside of
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: Jupiter there's like what is it frozen hydrogen or something?
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Metallic hydrogen? Metallic hydrogen yea oceans of liquid hydrogen is
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: all these layers of more and more compressed hydrogen, and
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: as you add more stuff to it than those layers
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: get denser and denser, right until at the very core
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: that's where the fusion would begin. When you get enough
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: match you sort of like gradually approved and you get
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: these layers and layers of more intensely squeezed hydrogen. Okay,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: so then as I increased man, let's say I'm I'm
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: pouring more hydrogen into Jupiter. Now we're at like four
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: times the size of Jupiter right now or the mass?
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Do things still change? Like, you know, does it suddenly
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: become more solid at the core or does it become
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: like a this nebulous ball of gas or does it
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Would it look the same just bigger. It would look
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: the same, just bigger. I don't know that you would
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: see much different from the outside. Like again, we don't
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: understand the patterns on the surface, so it's hard to
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: predict what those would look like. But on the inside
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: you be getting new layers, you'd be getting the core
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: would be denser. Right as you add more mass, you're
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: creating new layers in the core that are denser and hotter,
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: and eventually you're gonna make the one that's going to fuse.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: I wonder if it would grow another eye. Wouldn't that
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: be cool? Totally awesome. In fact, we wonder if that happened,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: if it was typical or unusual. So really, we should
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: replicate this project. We should make like d you know,
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: double jupiters or ten quad jupiters, just to see if
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: it's a systematic or not. Wow. I mean, while we're
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: scooping matter out of the sun and playing god, let's
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: be systematic about it, all right. So now let's say
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: I keep going and I'm now I've pumped up Jupiter
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: up to one on the size of the mass of
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: the Sun, where it could become a brown dwarf. I
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: guess would it just automatically turn into a brown dwarf
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: or does it need like some kind of event to
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: trigger it, or does it happen slowly? Jupiter wouldn't actually
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: turn into a brown dwarf if you've got it to
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: one mass of the Sun, because that's a special kind
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: of process. It needs deuterium. And if we're just adding hydrogen,
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: remember which just protons and electrons that needs to get
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: to one tenth the mass of the Sun. Deuterium is
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: a special thing, and you need a proton and a
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: neutron and the electron around it, and the neutron helps
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: that fusion happen. You might think like, well, that's weird.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: How's a neutron help fusion happen. It's neutral anyway, right,
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: Remember neutrons and these ound objects of quarks that have
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: the strong force. The neutron is what helps hold things together,
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: like in heavier elements. The neutron is the reason why
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: the element is stable. It keeps the protons separated, and
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: the little residual strong force from the quarks helps tie
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: everything together. So the neutrons are like the little helper
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: assistant particles making the fusion happen. The Brown Doors used
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: this special channel only available when you have deterior So
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: Jupiter isn't mostly deterium, it's mostly hydrogen. Oh man, alright,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: So I did all this work. I inflated Jupiter to
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: ten times in size, and apparently nothing happens. Yeah, exactly.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: So let's let's keep going. Let's keep pressing the accelerator
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: and see what happens to juventer. But first, let's take
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: a quick break, all right, Daniel. If I pop Jupiter
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: to one one hundreds the size of the Sun or
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: the mass of the Sun, nothing would happen. I would
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: need to take it to one tenth of the mass
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: of the Sun in order for Jupiter to be a star.
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: That's right, Make a blob of gas that's one tenth
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: the mass the Sun. Then gravity will coalesce it and
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: it will start to fuse, and it will start to glow,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: and it will be a new star and you can
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: name it whatever you like. Well, now I feel all
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: this pressure to come up with a grid name. But
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: basically you need a hundred jupiters. You need Juiver to
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: be a hundred times bigger or more massive in order
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: for it to ever become a star. And even then
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: it would be a red dwarf, which is not like
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: the shiniest, prettiest kind of star. That's right. It would
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: be much smaller than our star and not as bright.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: And would it ignite right away? Or is this like
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: like a slow burn where it slowly turns into a
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: red torch. Well, it depends on how dense it is
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: when you start, Like if you just start from a
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: big diffused cloud of gas the way our solar system started.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: Then it's going to take a long time for gravity
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: to pull that together. There. If you start from a
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: place where it's already pretty dense, like about it Densis Jupiter,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: then it's not going to take gravity that long because
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: everything is already pretty close together. But it'll start to
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: burn from the inside, right, and then that we'll have
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: to heat the next layers and the next layers and
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: the next layers, and so this isn't the kind of
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: thing that's going to happen, you know, in five seconds.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: But it's also not going to take a billion years.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: Oh I see. It's gonna start at the inside, and
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: then it's the heat the explosion of that. It's going
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: to gradually make it to the surface, and then that's
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: when you'll see its glow exactly. And it's just like
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: any other kind of fire, you know, the energy put
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: out by it sustains it, keeps that temperature hot, keeps
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: those fusion processes going. All right, Well, it sounds like
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: we're not likely to get a hundred jupiters all in
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: the same spot suddenly, although it's kind of cool to
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: think about, and so maybe um step aster, what is
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: the future of Jupiter. What's going to happen to it.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: It's not going to become a star, but what is
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: it going to become? Yeah, and you know, even if
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: Jupiter did become a star, like if it turned on,
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: I just want to mention that it's not going to
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: be as bright as our sun. And it's much further
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: from us, right, Jupiter is much further from us than
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: the Sun is. So even if it became a star,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: it wouldn't be nearly as bright in our sky as
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: the Sun. It wouldn't even be as bright in the
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: sky as the moon is. Actually, one of our sharp
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: listeners did this calculation, Dmitri Rudoi, found that a red
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: dwarf would be a bit brighter than the moon in
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: our sky. Thanks for keeping us honest, Dmitri. So it
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: would just be like a fairly bright star in the sky.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Oh really, even as is without inflating in Jupiter. If
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: suddenly Jupiter ignited became a star, which we said, well,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: it couldn't happen. But even if you turn Jupiter into
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: a red dwarf, if you made it a hundred times
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: as big and it ignited and it was a red dwarf,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: it wouldn't be as bright as our Sun, and it's
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: much further away from us, so it would appear dimmer
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: in our sky, So it wouldn't be very bright. Oh,
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: the distance from us to the Sun is much closer
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: than us to Jupiter. Yeah. Wow, Jupiter six times as
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: far away from the Sun as we are, which means
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: that at its closest approach, it's like four times as
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: far away from Earth as the Sun is. And so
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: that makes it one is bright if it was the
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: same brightness as the Sun, but it's going to be,
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: you know, much smaller than the Sun at the minimum threshold,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: and so maybe just not that bright in the sky
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: compared to the Sun or even the Moon. So pretty
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: much nothing would change if Jupiter suddenly became a star. Yeah,
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: it wouldn't really change at all. I mean, it wouldn't
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: be as bright as elon Musk's star link satellites. Even
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: we wouldn't get that dramatic too, suns floating in the sky.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: Look Skywalker looking out into the sundown of two stars.
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: It would just be like a bright star in the sky. Yeah,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: And so for that to happen to have like two
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: effective suns in your sky. You really need a second
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: star that's as big, as bright and as close. That's
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: really critical, and that that would probably be kind of
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: a mess, wouldn't it, Like if you had would be
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: acute these sons that close together to each other and
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: to you, It wouldn't be a happy, happy solar system. Yeah.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: And if you somehow created that son and then inserted
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: in there our existing solar system, there's no way that
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: any of our orbits would be stable, right, would like
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: completely gravitationally perturbed all the orbits. Like say, for example,
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: a huge sun came and ate Jupiter, like some sun
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: from another solar system happened to intersect our solar system
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: and just gobbled up Jupiter, and then we call that
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: the new Jupiter for some reason, that would totally destroy
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: our solar system, Like Earth would get flung out into
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: interstellar space. There's almost no chance that all the planets
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: would then like suddenly fall into a new stable set
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: of orbits around this pair of suns. Like that's very
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: totally disrupt our our orbits and probably tosses out into space. Yeah, yeah,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: we'd become a rogue planet. We'd end up with no
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: stars all right. Well, so then what is more likely
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: to happen to Jupiter. What is Jupiter's most like feature?
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Jupiter future is actually not that exciting. I mean, planets
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: are pretty stable. They're just hunks of stuff that are
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: mostly inert. I mean the stuff going on in the
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: center of the Earth, but it's not burning itself, it's
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: not consuming itself. So like stars have a lifespan because
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: they're burning their fuel and eventually they can't manage that
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: anymore and they collapse. Right The fire from that fusion
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: is sustaining them. But we're not really burning anything here
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: on Earth, and Jupiter isn't burning anything. It's just a
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: lump of stuff in space. And they can do that
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: basically forever. Lump of gas. Yeah, Like if you just
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: have a blob of gas, it can just be a
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: blob of gas forever. Yeah, exactly. And you know, the
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: Earth has an uncertain future because we're so close to
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: the Sun that when the Sun evolves and becomes a
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: red giant, it's going to become much much larger. In
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: the end stages of its life, it's going to grow
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: and eventually the Earth will be inside the Sun. Like
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: the Sun will grow so large that where we are
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: currently will be inside the radius of the Sun, but
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: for jim But Jupiter it's much further away. It's got
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: a good spot, so they're not going to be consumed
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: by the Sun or maybe even affected by it. Yeah,
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: when the Sun goes red giant and absorbs the Earth,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: Jupiter will be fine out there. I mean the radiation
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: from the Sun will increase, the heat from the Sun
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: will increase, and so that will increase the amount of
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: solar radiation that lands on Jupiter. So it might get
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: like more violent storms on its surface, it might affect
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: that red spot, might heat it up a little bit,
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: but it's not going to be a big change for Jupiter.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: So Jupiter is in a pretty good spot. It's happy
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: to sit there forever and not really do anything. It
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: sounds like we're going to have to move to Jupiter
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: in a few billion years. I wouldn't recommend it. Jupiter
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: is not that great a place to land, as the
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Galileo probe discovered. But maybe one of the moons of Jupiter, right,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: they're saying we could potentially live in one of them.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: There's water maybe in some of them. Yeah, there's lots
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: of moons of Jupiter. That we think might already have life.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: We did some fun podcast episodes about what's happening in
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: the potential underground oceans on some of those frozen moons.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Some of them have like a thick layer of ice
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: with water underneath, and so that could be a nice
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: place to live. Absolutely. Yeah, there's a big ball of
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: ice and water out there just waiting for us. Yeah,
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: assuming the aliens don't come and turn Jupiter into a star.
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: But but they can't. They would have to grow it
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: by a hundred. They would have to grow by a hundred, Yeah, exactly,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: So they have to steal all that mass from our Sun.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: So I don't know what the aliens were thinking in
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: two thousand ten. Well, I wonder if the future Jupiter
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: juve and astronomers are then gonna be laughing at our astronomers,
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: just like we were just laughing at the dinosaur astronomers saying, man,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: that should have seen the sun, should have known that
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: the Sun was going to turn the red giant and
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: gone it out of the way. Yeah, well that's gonna
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: be in like a billion years, and so I hope
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: that we're still doing astronomy in a billion years, and
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: then we have those kind of things to think about
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: and to worry about. But I also hope that in
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: a billion years, we've gotten off the planet and we
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: have our Jovian Moon calling ease and astronomy happening in
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: the outer reaches the Solar system, and maybe even developed
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: warp drive to go do other solar systems. Yeah, I
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: guess that's what you could do it you can build
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: a wormhole that connects Jupiter in the Sun to sort
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: of shunt material from the Sun directly into Jupiter. Oh no, now,
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: now we sparked imagination of a physicist. What's the worst
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: that can happen if we create a wormhole like a
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: nice Jupiter and the Sun? Yeah, exactly. Well, Fortunately I
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: don't know any engineers willing to actually build this thing
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: for me, so I'm free to speculate wildly. Oh good, Yeah, well,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: we'll all make a pack. All of us engineers will
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: make a pack. Not to help any physicists do any
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: kind of crazy stuff. Don't answer emails from Daniel, even
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: if it seems like a good idea, yeah, even if
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: he has money. Don't did reply? All right, Well, it
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: sounds like a lot of the people who maybe we're
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: worried that Jupiter was going to turn into a star.
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: Can rest easy because it doesn't sound like Jupiter is
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: going to be a star anytime soon, or and even
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: become a star anytime soon. Or maybe that's right. Even
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: though Jupiter totally dwarfs us, it's really small compared to
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: the thresholds necessary to become even the dimmest, lamest kind
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: of star. And it's much much smaller than those cosmic
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: giants that are out there fusing and illuminating the cosmos.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: And so while there is a lot of drama out
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: there in the universe, stars collapsing and forming and all
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: sorts of crazy things happening, it seems like Jupiter it's
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: pretty solid. So rest easy and relaxed because Jupiter is
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: just gonna keep on floating out there, keeping its big
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: red eye on. That's right, and we recommend you invest
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: in Jovian moon real estate. Can you is that? Listen
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: on redfin Send me a check and I will send
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: you a title to your new property. It sounds like
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: you could get arrested for that, Daniel, But all right, well,
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: we hope you enjoyed Dad. Thanks for joining us, and
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: thanks for sending in your Questions. If you like a
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: question answered on the podcast, please send it to us
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: to question at Daniel and Jorge dot com. See you
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: next time. Thanks for listening, and remember that Daniel and
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: Jorge Explain the Universe is a production of I Heart Radio.
• 37:16
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• 37:22
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