Re: Is is possible to initiate Jupiter to fusion momentarirly?

Hi Robert,

Exploding a hydrogen bomb in Jupiter's atmosphere or liquid interior would not cause any of the surrounding hydrogen to fuse into helium. It would briefly heat up a tiny patch of the planet, but not enough to initiate fusion. For widespread fusion to happen inside Jupiter, requires that its interior temperature and density be comparable to those found in the core of the Sun. These sorts of conditions would simply not be reproduced on a large enough size scale in an H-bomb explosion.

Certainly if one could find a way to dump more hydrogen onto Jupiter---enough to make it about a tenth as massive as the Sun---then the center could become hot and dense enough to begin sustained fusion, and Jupiter would become a bona fide star. And yes, in that case, the increased mass would certainly have a measurable effect on the orbits of the other planets. However, since Jupiter only has about a thousanth the mass of the Sun, this would require adding about 99 more Jupiter masses of hydrogen to the planet! If there were (and there isn't, to our knowledge) a way to initiate sustained fusion in Jupiter without dumping more mass onto it, then its total mass would not be changed, so the other planets' orbits would remain unaffected.

This same argument applies to the other giant gaseous planets. For a more detailed explanation of why fusion fails to occur in Jupiter, see Aaron Romanowsky's response to a previous question. Cheers, Eric