Scientists say Jupiter was too small to become a star. However, they heard a radio signal last year from a star last year that they say is the same size as Earth. It even has a planet around it the size of Neptune. If there really is a star the size of Earth, how is that possible if Jupiter isn't big enough to...
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answers:
tham153 say: The crucial factor is MASS. Size is nearly irrelevant. Jupiter's mass, while 317.7 times that of Earth, is less than a fifth that needed for self-sustaining fusion reactions. Small stars such as Sirius B are approximately Earth's size, but have a mass equal to the Sun or more. Huge density, of course.
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ritu say: You are just confused between the size and mass of a star.The star that you are talking about might be a white dwarf.They are the size of earth,but could have a mass of over 50 percent of what the sun has right now.They are basically just very dense.
For your heading question,a planet should at least about 7.5 percent the mass of the sun.
Hope this helps!
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poornakumar b say: 81 times of Jupiter's mass
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Dump the liberals into Jupiter say: Size and mass are different things. A white dwarf star is the SIZE of Earth, but it probably has a mass around 200,000 times greater than Earth's mass. A M9 red dwarf star is only a little bigger than Jupiter is, but its mass is 60 times greater.
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quantumclaustrophobe say: It's not so much size that matters, but mass... Jupiter would need to be about 81 times more massive than it is now to sustain fusion. If you think about it, the sun has 99% of the mass of our solar system - but it's only 10 times the diameter of Jupiter - so, again, it's not size, but mass that matters. It's how much pressure is available in the core that matters, not how big the star is physically.
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