
How Big Is the Biggest Possible Planet? - nature24
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/outthere/2017/08/04/how-big-is-the-biggest-possible-planet/#.WZIkxMm1tBw
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madez
This is an interesting read. It is not intertwined with a story I have no
interest in. It links to useful references. It has facts, not an opinion to
share.

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sitkack
Thanks for sharing.

Why don't you like opinion and narrative?

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madez
It's not that I don't like narrative or couldn't appreciate opinion. But I
want them seperated from the facts.

If the title of the article promises interesting news and facts, then that is
what I expect. When I want narrative, I read a novel. I want to form my own
opinion after seeing the facts. Then I can compare my opinion with others.

This article strikes a good balance between a blunt bullet-point list of
facts, and too much talking. When in doubt, I prefer the list of facts.

When I see an article starting with "It was a long and rainy summer day when
John McDoe..." I stop reading and close the tab.

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myrandomcomment
I wonder if anyone has every looked at the 2010 (book or movie) idea of
turning Jupiter into a star and what would really happen?

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saboot
Take an orbital simulation with our current planet positions and velocities,
change the mass of Jupiter and keep momentum the same, and see what happens!

I'd predict not good things though, our solar system is somewhat chaotic /
unstable over long time scales so a sudden change would probably eject some
planets.

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Retric
Simulating these interactions over very long timescales is rather tricky. So,
getting this right is very hard and must include not only energy calculations
including rotation, but also full on General Relativity.

Remember, because you need a lot of energy to change a planets orbit and
planets only very weakly interact things are more stable than you might think.

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Retric
Let me put it another way, how do you validate your model?

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taneq
They seem to be exclusively considering gas giants. A planet made of heavier
elements would be much more resistant to fusion at its core (but then would be
much heavier as well) - someone more familiar with the numbers could calculate
whether this would make the limit higher or lower.

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sitkack
Are you saying a planet made entirely out of Iron?

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_peak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_peak)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_star](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_star)

