WEBVTT - Could Jupiter turn into a star? 0:00:08.760 --> 0:00:10.640 Hey, Daniel, do you ever think about what the night 0:00:10.760 --> 0:00:14.680 sky looked like to our ancestors? I do. I wonder 0:00:14.720 --> 0:00:16.880 how it looked at them. And I also like thinking 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:19.040 even further back in the past, like what did the 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:21.639 dinosaurs see in the sky? Yeah, they probably should have 0:00:21.640 --> 0:00:24.119 looked at this guy more carefully, you know, looking for 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:27.720 meteors for example. I know dinosaur astronomers totally fell down 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:30.600 on the job, but you can even think further back, 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:34.720 like the first eyeballs on Earth five million years ago, 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:39.599 you mean, like microbe astronomers, or you know, I think 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:41.520 to the future. I wonder what the night sky will 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:44.360 look like to humans billions of years from It could 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:47.080 be totally different. I mean, if there even our humans 0:00:47.120 --> 0:00:49.920 then yeah. Well I'm thinking about the future cockroach astronomers 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:52.120 and hoping they will keep an eye on the stars 0:00:52.120 --> 0:01:12.920 for us. Whatever they see doesn't bug them. I am 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:16.920 more hamming cartoonists and the creator of PhD comics. I'm Daniel. 0:01:16.959 --> 0:01:19.479 I'm a particle physicist. And that was the first time 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:22.600 I ever said cockroach on the podcast and astronomers in 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:28.720 the same sentence Publicly. I love astronomers, I love astronomy. 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:31.920 I'm nothing but pro astronomers. I did like the idea 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:34.880 of dinosaur astronomers. That's pretty cool. My favorite story about 0:01:34.880 --> 0:01:37.560 dinosaur astronomers is that they really did have a chance 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:41.200 to save themselves. Your favorite I feel like you thought 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:43.880 about this before. Well, yeah, absolutely. You know that the 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:46.679 meteor that came and wiped out the dinosaurs made a 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:50.440 near past by the Earth ten years earlier, Yeah, and 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:52.320 came close enough that they should have been able to 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:55.120 look up and see it in the sky. So if 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:57.280 they had funded their version of NASA, they could have 0:01:57.320 --> 0:01:59.560 saved their own lives ten years. Do you think dinosaurs 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:03.120 could have built spaceships? And necessity is the mother of invention, right, 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:05.520 do you think they should have called the dinosaur Bruce 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:08.440 Willis put them on a spaceship and getting to deflect 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:10.480 that asteroid in ten years? Well, you know the other 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:13.359 option is what happened, So anything is better than that. 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:17.200 But anyways, welcome to our podcast. Daniel and Jorge talk 0:02:17.240 --> 0:02:21.320 about dinosaur astronomers. That's all we do. Daniel and Jorge 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:23.839 digress in the very first moments of the podcast. That's 0:02:23.960 --> 0:02:26.840 right now. Welcome to our podcast. Daniel and Jorge explained 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:29.320 the universe a production of I Heart Radio in which 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:32.040 we talk about all the amazing and beautiful and crazy 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:36.160 things about the universe, the violent events, the incredible drama 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:39.440 happening in the inside of stars, the tiny little particles 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:43.000 that apparently make up everything you see and touch and taste. Yeah, 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:45.440 all of the spacey stuff out there, happening in the 0:02:45.520 --> 0:02:48.600 universe and even in our own backyards, or I guess 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:51.799 our solar system backyard. That's right, because when you look 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:53.880 out into the night sky, you are not seeing a 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:56.720 still picture. You are not seeing a flat image. You 0:02:56.760 --> 0:03:00.560 are seeing a drama unfolding on cosmic distance sales and 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:02.840 time scales. If you were to look at the night 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:06.200 sky sped up a little bit, you would see incredible events, 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:09.920 huge explosions, massive collisions. It would put Hollywood to shame. 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:14.120 It's like a cosmological telenovella, a lot of twists and turns. 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:16.800 I don't know if anybody's really like backstabbing anybody, or 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:18.959 does the Earth have an evil twin on the other 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:24.880 side of the Sun Planet X Extreme close up. I 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:27.040 don't know if there's so much political intrigue, but there 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:30.440 is definitely drama. There are things that happened rapidly, all 0:03:30.480 --> 0:03:34.000 of a sudden. There are sudden changes of fate. There 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:35.520 are things that are happening, and so I think it's 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.760 fun to think about how our solar system will evolve. Yeah, 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:41.000 because as we as humans found out about a hundred 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:45.120 years ago, the universe is not static. Things are changing. 0:03:45.200 --> 0:03:49.280 The stars are moving, the galaxies are blazing across the universe, 0:03:49.520 --> 0:03:52.640 and new stars are being born all the time. That's right. 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:55.600 And stars can change right there, formed from the collapse 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:59.680 of gases into a hot dense object that confuse eventually 0:03:59.760 --> 0:04:02.200 to and into something else like a black hole or 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:04.600 a white dwarf. They go through this evolution, and so 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:08.120 it's natural to also wonder, like what about planets? Do 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:11.720 planets have future stages in their evolution? Are they like Pokemon? 0:04:11.960 --> 0:04:15.200 They can evolve into different versions. They say that Earth 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:18.240 is only stage one. I don't know enough about Pokemon 0:04:18.279 --> 0:04:20.320 to even really make that joke. I just watched my 0:04:20.360 --> 0:04:23.760 kids play, so I can say energy cards and pokemons evolved. 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:25.520 Then we're at the end of my knowledge. I think 0:04:25.520 --> 0:04:28.919 our planet is Earth type. Is it an e X 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:31.200 or a g X? Does it have the shiny glint 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:37.240 on it? It used to. I think that's right. And 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:39.320 we did a podcast recently in which we talked about 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.760 Jupiter and how close Jupiter was to having become a star, 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:45.440 and a bunch of listeners wrote in asking us about that. 0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:49.960 Jim Sanchez, Doug Dodds, and Ryan Kyrkiss all wrote and 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:52.480 asked us like, well, is Jupiter on the verge of 0:04:52.520 --> 0:04:55.720 becoming a star? Could it one day eventually become a star? 0:04:56.680 --> 0:04:59.200 Because I guess it's kind of a fine line between 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:03.000 the being a giant cloud of dust and being a 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:06.840 giant gas planet and maybe being a giant ball of 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:09.920 flaming gas like the Sun. It's kind of a fine line. 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:11.839 It turns out. How final line is it either on 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:16.039 fire or you're not? That seems pretty clear cut to me. Well, 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:19.120 I mean what does it take, like a match or 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:21.400 you know, a spark. I guess that's the question we'll 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:23.800 be talking about today. That's right. So to the other program, 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:31.800 we'll be asking the question could Jupiter become a star? 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:34.280 Is it too late for Jupiter or can it still 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:37.680 you know, find the right role and suddenly be the 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:39.640 new darling of Hollywood. Hey, you know, jump on the 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:42.440 TikTok and anybody can become a star. Oh hey, that's 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:45.000 what Jupiter needs. That's right. But there was some actual 0:05:45.080 --> 0:05:48.280 serious talk about this. A couple of decades ago. NASA 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:51.640 sent a probe out to study Jupiter, and they didn't 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:55.240 want the probe to infect any of Jupiter's moons where 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:59.120 we think there might potentially be life, right, my crobial life. 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.200 And we didn't want to cray Galileo this probe onto 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:04.080 any of Jupiter's moons because we didn't want to bring 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:07.039 any earth microbes. Right, once you bring Earth's microbes, you 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:10.680 can no longer ask like are their native microbes? And 0:06:10.760 --> 0:06:14.680 so instead they crashed the probe into Jupiter itself because 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:17.599 we don't care about infect the Jupiter. I think the 0:06:17.640 --> 0:06:20.080 idea was that it would burn up and get crushed 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:22.920 because Jupiter has this incredible atmosphere, so we get immolated 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:26.800 in descent, whereas the moons don't have those atmospheres, and 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:29.400 so it would actually land on the surface and potentially survive. 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:33.279 But there was some concern about that. Yeah, people were wondering, like, 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.240 if Jupiter is on the verge of becoming a star, 0:06:36.279 --> 0:06:39.000 if it's this huge ball of gas and you drop 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:42.040 a match into it essentially, is there impossibility that it 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:45.440 could have ignited the atmosphere or Jupiter and birth a 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:48.880 new star, because I mean Jupiter. If you think about it, 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:52.320 it's a giant ball of hydrogen, right, kind of like 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:55.880 the Hindenberg. Kind of like the Hindenburg, but much bigger. 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:58.320 That's what I mean. It's like the big balloon made 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:00.680 out of hydrogen and all you need is a little 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:03.200 flame and some oxygen. All of a sudden, it sounds 0:07:03.279 --> 0:07:09.080 very unstable, does it sounds like a nine twenties idea? Yeah? 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:12.040 And you know this actually appears in science fiction as well, 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:14.640 in the well known series two thousand and one, two 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:19.200 thousand ten, etcetera. They turn Jupiter into a star on purpose. Yeah, 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:21.480 on purpose, I guess. You know. The aliens. We didn't 0:07:21.520 --> 0:07:25.000 really ever understand their psychology, but they turn it into 0:07:25.000 --> 0:07:27.440 a new star. They call it Lucifer. The Aliens call 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:30.200 it Lucifer. I don't remember the details that book. Who 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:32.800 calls it Lucifer, Whether it's the aliens naming it or 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.920 you know, earthbound cartoonists who are elected to a naming 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:38.720 committee who gave it that name. But I do remember 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:41.880 the sequel to two thousand and one two thousand and ten. 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:45.040 I think that that the end, Jupiter does become a star. 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:48.240 Sorry spoiler um, because the star at the end of 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:51.960 that movie. And I was wondered, like, oh, that's pretty interesting, 0:07:52.000 --> 0:07:53.880 but what does that mean? Is that going to change 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:57.200 our solar system or what's the big deal? Yeah? Exactly, 0:07:57.240 --> 0:07:59.920 So it's an interesting question. It's right here in our backyard. 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:03.000 It seems relevant. So we thought we would try to 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:05.720 figure out how close is Jupiter to becoming a star? 0:08:05.840 --> 0:08:07.920 If you wanted to turn it into a star, what 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:10.680 would you have to do? So, as usual, Daniel went 0:08:10.720 --> 0:08:13.840 out there into the wilds of the Internet and ask 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:17.560 people to submit their answer to the question could Jupiter 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:20.520 become a star? That's right, So thank you to everybody 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.480 who participated, And if you'd like to participate in future 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:27.080 rounds of person on the Internet interviews, please send us 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:29.760 a note to questions at Daniel and Jorge dot com. 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:32.960 We'd love for you to answer our questions. And before 0:08:32.960 --> 0:08:35.520 you listen to these answers, think about it for a second. 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:39.080 Do you think Jupiter could become a star. Here's what 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:41.880 people had to say. I think anyone who claims to 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:44.920 know where the Jupiter can turn into a star. Absolutely 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:48.240 is probably exaggerating their knowledge in order to make up 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:53.280 one last say. I think Jupiter is like a filed 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:57.760 star because it's not massive enough to have the fusion 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:01.960 reactions at the cool The only way I can think 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:04.120 of that it could become a star would be if 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:08.200 it pulled in enough matter. Well it didn't for our reason, 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:15.000 I suppose not enough mass um. I didn't hear that 0:09:15.840 --> 0:09:23.320 almost became a star. Well, well maybe it's if a 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:28.280 lot of planets I think the universe is are unlikely 0:09:28.360 --> 0:09:31.400 to happen, But it happened, So perhaps it's just as 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:33.480 unlikely that Tupiter would turn into a star. But I 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:39.600 suppose it could happen. Yeah, what kind of what kind 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:44.839 of start? Jupiter is a gas giant and it's made 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:48.400 of gas, and stars are also made of gas. So 0:09:48.640 --> 0:09:52.240 I think maybe if a small star came into it. 0:09:52.480 --> 0:09:56.320 I suppose if it became big enough and had enough gravity, 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:59.079 it could turn on and become a star. But I'm 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:03.240 not aware that it's so it's growing. My short answer 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:06.680 is I don't think so. Yes, I think that it's 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:08.880 eight times more massive that it would need to become 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:14.240 in order for Jupiter to start burning hydrogen and fusing 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:18.160 it into helium. But even if you were to combine 0:10:18.360 --> 0:10:21.240 all the planets in the Solar System, you wouldn't get 0:10:21.240 --> 0:10:25.719 to the mass needed. So by natural means, no, it's 0:10:25.760 --> 0:10:33.120 not possible. But theoretically could Jupiter become a star? Then yes, 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:36.280 you just need to add eight more jupiters to it. 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:40.280 If Jupiter's ape does extremely well, I think Jupiter might 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:45.120 be able to become a starmp if anyone could be 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:48.800 a start with. Oh my gosh. I believe that the 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:52.080 gas giants have cleaned up our Solar system enough that 0:10:52.200 --> 0:10:54.679 it is unlikely that Jupiter would be able to get 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:59.640 enough mass to turn into a star. Well, theoretically possible 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:03.400 in time. I think the way that it might happen 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:07.400 is maybe if there are a rogue planet that collided 0:11:07.480 --> 0:11:12.280 with Jupiter or sufficient other material like comets and asteroids 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:18.079 and so on, But that seems implosible. Alright. Some great 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:21.680 answers I like the one that said yes, I mean no, wait, 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:26.880 what's the star? If you're not going to be accurate, 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:30.280 you should at least be well. I guess that perfectly 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:33.440 reflects how I feel. I'm like, yes, no, wait, let's 0:11:33.440 --> 0:11:35.480 define a star. Yeah. I think it is an interesting 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:38.880 question because you know, different stuff out there have evolutions, 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:41.520 you know, we see stuff changing in the universe, and 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:43.440 we haven't ever talked about the question of like, is 0:11:43.480 --> 0:11:46.120 a planet stable? Could a planet just hang out forever 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:50.959 or does it have the next natural stage in its evolution? Yeah? 0:11:51.240 --> 0:11:53.680 Is this possible that we suddenly have two stars in 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.720 our sky? You know, kind of like star wars? Yeah? 0:11:56.800 --> 0:11:58.360 What would that mean for when you have to go 0:11:58.400 --> 0:12:01.800 to work and abaly make our days longer? Yeah, it 0:12:01.840 --> 0:12:04.640 would make our days longer and much more irregular. Right, 0:12:04.679 --> 0:12:07.000 you wouldn't have regular patterns. You have times when both 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:09.240 stars were in the sky and times when only one 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:11.079 of them was in the sky. Have you ever read 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:13.200 the three body problem? You know, the calendar on that 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:16.800 planet is very complicated. All right, let's jump into it, Daniel. 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:19.040 What makes something a star versus a planet? I guess 0:12:19.120 --> 0:12:21.839 let's start with that question. What happens at that fourth 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:23.920 in the road for a big ball of gas where 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:27.120 it turns into a jupiter, or it turns into a star, 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:29.680 and or can it kind of switch over? Yeah? So 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:33.079 really it's all about mass, Like if you are a 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:37.160 big enough blob of stuff, then gravity will pull you 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:40.000 in and compress you hard enough that you will start 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:45.160 to fuse. You'll create the conditions necessary to squish these 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:48.559 particles together so they fuse, which releases a huge amount 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.280 of energy. And that's really the distinction between a planet 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:54.199 and a star. A star is using, it's releasing energy, 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:57.360 it's burning itself, and a planet is much more inert 0:12:57.559 --> 0:12:59.760 than no fusion happening at the center of the Earth 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:01.960 or at the center of Jupiter, for example, And that's 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:04.120 just because we don't have enough stuff, Like if we 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:06.880 had more stuff, it would be heavier, and things get 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:09.680 more compressing you sort of get to that pressure where 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:12.160 fusion happens. That's right. It's all about the stuff, and 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:14.320 it depends on which kind of stuff. Like if you're 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:18.360 just hydrogen, just gas, then you need less stuff. Then 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:21.160 if you're like a huge ball of oxygen or carbon, 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:24.560 because the heavier elements take higher pressure or higher temperature 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:27.959 conditions in order to fuse, So hydrogen is the easiest. 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:30.160 So if you're gonna go all hydrogen, you need a 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:32.560 big ball of gas. If you're gonna go all carbon 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:35.559 or all oxygen or something heavier, you need a bigger bone. 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:38.320 But in principle, if you took the Earth and made 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:41.600 it much more massive, same stuff, same mixture of stuff, 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:45.040 it would turn into a star. Wow, how much more stuff? 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:46.680 I guess? I guess The question is what does it 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:48.960 take to be a star? How much stuff do you need? 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:50.640 And we can think about it in terms of like 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:54.600 pounds or kilograms or squirrels, but those units are hard 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:57.319 to grasp because the numbers are so big. Let's just 0:13:57.360 --> 0:13:59.200 talk about in terms of stuff. So let's talk about 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:02.760 in terms of units of like one sun. So the 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:05.680 minimum amount of stuff you need to reach any sort 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:08.960 of fusion is about one one of the mass of 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:11.600 the sun of our son, of our son. Yeah, we're 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:14.400 using our suns as a unit. You could have something 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:17.120 one one of our sun and it could be a star. 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:20.480 That's right, And that's only like really special. That's the 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:24.240 absolute minimum. It gets you above the shelf for the lowest, weakest, 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:27.000 lamest kind of fusion. And if you reach that threshold, 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:30.760 you're called a brown dwarf. And it's a special kind 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:34.640 of fusion. It's not just hydrogen fusion. It's deuterium fusion 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:38.240 and deuterium, if you remember, is an isotope of hydrogen, 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:40.880 and the nucleus you have a proton and a neutron, 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:44.480 not just a proton, and that neutron is crucial because 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:47.440 it helps sort of bring those protons together and stick 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:50.440 them together. I see, um, that sounds small, like one 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:52.880 hundreds the size of the Sun. But that's it like 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:56.400 what like ten earth? That's yes, something like ten thou earths. 0:14:56.400 --> 0:14:59.280 It's a lot bigger than the Earth, and so it's 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:01.120 not that small, all right. I mean, it's small compared 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:03.800 to our Sun, but it's a big object. And they're 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:07.640 called brown dwarfs, but they're pretty badly named because they're 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:10.960 not actually brown. They're not actually dwarves if they're ten 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:15.320 thousand earths. Also, so two strikes there for the physics 0:15:15.360 --> 0:15:18.760 community in one name their dwarfs compared to the other stars. 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:21.760 But they don't look at all brown. They look magenta 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:24.600 or like orange red. And that's just because the kind 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:26.400 of fusion that happens in the kind of light that 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:28.440 they admit I see. But they're still sort of big 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:31.920 balls of fiery stuff. They just they don't glows brightly 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:34.640 and they're kind of tinged in a certain color, and 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.360 these things exist and they're not that rare in the universe. 0:15:37.560 --> 0:15:40.000 Is one like six and a half light years away 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:44.280 from us. It's called Luman sixteen. And so they're not 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:46.440 that easy to see because they're not that bright. But 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:49.200 you know, theoretically we understand that they should exist and 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:51.400 we see them out there, and so this is totally 0:15:51.400 --> 0:15:54.480 a possibility. It's the minimum threshold to become a star. 0:15:54.560 --> 0:15:57.560 And then those are the smallest stars. So then what's 0:15:57.600 --> 0:15:59.680 the next step up? Next step up is you know, 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:02.400 really you might call the first kind of real star, 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:05.480 and this is a red dwarf, a brown dwarf. People argue, like, 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:08.160 you know, is it a big, hot burning planet. Is 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:10.520 a star that's you know, it's kind of lame, but 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:13.960 a red dwarf nobody argues about, Like, it's definitely a star. 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:18.280 It burns hydrogen. Like essentially, this is the minimum star 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:20.440 you need if you just start from hydrogen. If you 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:22.960 have one tenth the mass of the Sun and a 0:16:23.080 --> 0:16:26.480 huge ball of hydrogen gas, gravity will pull it together 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:29.600 and squeeze it hard enough for it to fuse fuse. 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:32.360 But in a brown star, there's no fusion. There is fusion, 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:35.000 but it's deterior and fusion. It's not hydrogen fusion. A 0:16:35.040 --> 0:16:38.240 brown star is not hot enough to fuse hydrogen. You 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:41.280 need that extra neutron in the nucleus to make the 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:43.880 fusion happen, and so the fusion doesn't release as much 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:47.120 energy either. There's sort of like a cooler, weaker lam 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:49.560 or kind of fusion, but it's still fusion. It's just 0:16:49.640 --> 0:16:52.080 kind of an easier fusion. It's easier and it's not 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:54.800 as dramatic. It doesn't produce as much energy. So that's 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:57.520 why the brown dwarfs aren't so luminous. All right. So 0:16:57.680 --> 0:16:59.720 then when you get to one tenth of the mass 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:02.040 with the Sun, then you get the real cooking coin. 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:04.480 That's right, that's a legit star. It's a red dwarf, 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:08.160 and you know there's one that's only six years away. 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:10.840 It has a name that's all like letters and acronym, 0:17:10.920 --> 0:17:13.600 so it's totally unpronounceable. But the cool thing about it 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:16.879 is that it's really dense, like it has one tenth 0:17:16.920 --> 0:17:19.320 the mass of the Sun, but it's radius it's the 0:17:19.359 --> 0:17:23.920 same as Saturn. Wow, So it's tiny, but it's it's compact. 0:17:24.040 --> 0:17:28.000 It's a little dwarf. It's a little red dwarf. It's 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:33.919 perfectly named and is it red? So there you go 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:37.640 to check marks for the astronomy community terms. You're you're 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:42.800 up to zero then zero zero zero physicists, this is 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:45.760 zero public. But you know, something the size of a 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:48.800 planet can definitely be a star. That's not an issue. 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:51.760 It's not just about size, it's about mass. Remember, gravity 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:54.440 will gather this stuff together and make it really dense 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.920 for density. Yeah, all right, well it's clear that things 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.560 about the size of planets can become stars. And so 0:18:00.600 --> 0:18:03.600 now let's talk about Jupiter and whether Jupiter could or 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:06.720 could have become a star. But first let's take a 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:22.679 quick break. All right, Daniel, we're talking about making a 0:18:22.720 --> 0:18:25.200 star in our own backyard. So what do we need? 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:29.119 A grill, some matches, a lot of flower which is 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:33.280 on short supply. Oh no, better order a crate of it. 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:36.200 All right, So let's we're talking about whether Jupiter could 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:38.959 be one day become a star, which is a crazy idea. 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:41.439 But you're telling me that it's all about the stuff. 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:44.439 You have enough stuff and you're compressed enough, then almost 0:18:44.480 --> 0:18:46.959 anything can become a star. Yeah, And so let's talk 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:50.280 about Jupiter. How how massive is Jupiter. Jupiter is about 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:53.840 one tenth of one of the mass of the Sun, 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:57.840 so one of the song Okay, so it's it's ten 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:00.680 times too small to be a brown Earth. Yeah, I 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:03.159 remember the threshold is one hundred of the Sun for 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:05.760 a brown dwarf, one tenth of the Sun for a 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:09.879 red dwarf. And so Jupiter it's ten times too small 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:12.400 to be a brown dwarf and a hundred times too 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:14.560 small to be a red dwarf. And it's made out 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:17.720 of roughly the right stuff. It's mostly hydrogen. It's just 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:21.680 not big enough icy and you need that stuff because 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:23.720 I mean, while you like, the Earth could become a 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:26.600 star if you compress it down enough, but there's nothing 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:29.800 really compressing the Earth that much except for its gravity, 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:32.040 and so without that stuff to create the gravity, you 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:34.479 can't turn into a star. Yeah, the Earth is like 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:38.359 one three hundred thousand's the size of the Sun, and 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:41.680 so we're nowhere near massive enough to ever become a star. 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:44.840 Jupiter is like it's in within shouting distance, you know, 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:47.800 like ten times too small to be a pathetic little 0:19:47.840 --> 0:19:50.680 brown dwarf is like it's you know, ten times. It's 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:53.120 not a small thing to overcome, but it's still ten 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:55.960 times too small. Like that doesn't seem likely to happen 0:19:56.040 --> 0:19:59.239 anytime soon. No, And Jupiter is already really big, right, 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:01.760 So it sends the In order for Jupiter become a star, 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:04.680 you have to multiply its mass by a factor of ten. 0:20:05.240 --> 0:20:10.199 That means like gather nine more jubiters somewhere somehow and 0:20:10.359 --> 0:20:14.040 added to junior. Al Right, well, it doesn't sound very 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:16.440 likely then that Jupiter is going to turn into star. 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:19.679 Why was NASA worried about it years ago? You know, 0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:22.200 I think they just thought that crashing a probe into 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:24.760 it could spark a reaction. You know, the process we're 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:28.159 talking about, a sort of a natural gathering due to gravity. 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:30.720 You know, the Hindenburg went into flames without being the 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:33.679 mass of the Sun, and so people were just worried 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:35.760 that adding a spark to a ball of gas could 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:38.560 potentially ignite it. But I think that was a small 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:42.359 community of paranoid voices inside NASA, and most people weren't 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:44.480 too worried. But you know, if you know the story, 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:47.560 we were worried about igniting the atmosphere when we tested 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:50.639 the first atomic bomb in New Mexico. Really, yeah, that 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:53.439 was a possible concern. Yeah, before they tested it, they 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:57.280 did the calculations and they couldn't rule out igniting the atmosphere. 0:20:57.359 --> 0:20:59.560 But you know, they went ahead and tried it. Anyway, 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:03.840 what's the worst that can happen? So it's not just 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:08.120 particle physicists that are potentially ending the world. Okay, oh good, 0:21:08.160 --> 0:21:12.840 it's other kinds of physicists, that's right, and even ending 0:21:12.880 --> 0:21:16.879 potentially other worlds. Yeah. So if you wanted to turn 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:21.120 Jupiter into a star, you'd have to somehow gather these materials. Yeah, 0:21:21.160 --> 0:21:23.119 let's talk about that. If you're an alien in the 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:25.919 Arthursday Clark novel, how would you do it? Well, you know, 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:28.280 where can you get these materials? Like, what is the 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:30.920 source of raw materials you need to turn Jupiter into 0:21:30.960 --> 0:21:33.920 a star. There's really the biggest things in the Solar 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:36.399 system are the Sun and Jupiter, and after that everything 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:39.560 else is a tiny detail. So the only place to 0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:41.919 get this up is from the Sun. So you have 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:45.359 to basically steal from the Sun, siphon off a huge 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:49.440