00:00When we think about stars, supermassive balls of white fusion gas are probably what come
00:07to mind.
00:08But they aren't all so big.
00:09In fact, in the Milky Way galaxy, Red Dwarf EBLM J0555-57AB is barely bigger than Saturn,
00:18and it's actually smaller than Jupiter.
00:20So you might be asking yourself, why didn't Jupiter ever turn into a star?
00:23Jupiter, after all, is made of the same stuff that stars are made of, hydrogen and helium.
00:28But the biggest factor is its density.
00:30Sure, Jupiter may have the mass of 2.5 times the rest of our solar system's planets combined,
00:35but its density is only around 1.33 grams per cubic centimeter.
00:39And yeah, the Sun's mass may only be 1.41 grams per cubic centimeter, but while Jupiter
00:44is big on a planetary scale, it's only .0001 times the mass of our Sun.
00:50Stars form when the core of a future star is pressed so hard under the gravity of its own
00:54mass, that thermonuclear fusion occurs.
00:56And Jupiter, while big, just doesn't have enough mass.
00:59So rather than being a failed star, like some may say, Jupiter is more likely the leftover
01:03gases from the birth of our own solar systems, Sun.
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