Some of the planets in our Solar System
are gigantic.
But what if they got even bigger?
Let’s go up the planetary size chart
and see what kind of chaos
doubling the size of every planet
would make.
Doubling the radius of every planet
in the Solar System
would make each of them
eight times more massive.
But you wouldn't need to worry about
our Solar System’s great ball of fire
getting bigger and hotter.
For the sake of this experiment,
let's keep the Sun
the same size it already is.
But could the gravitational pull of a super-Jupiter
kickstart a chain of events
that would result in the destruction of the Solar System?
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Lord Peter, now that has a nice ring to it.
At its current size,
the rocky planet closest to the Sun
is only slightly larger than our Moon.
Doubling it in size
would make it nearly half as massive as Earth.
And despite the fact that Mercury stopped being volcanically active
3.5 billion years ago,
expanding its interior would mean all that internal energy
would need to escape somewhere.
So there could be
some more explosive volcanic eruptions in Mercury’s future.
Venus is very similar in size to Earth.
But one of its many differences
is that its atmosphere is so thick
that the surface pressure is 95 times stronger than our own.
Venus’ increased gravity
would pull the atmosphere even closer to its surface.
This could result in the atmosphere becoming so dense
that walking through it
would feel more like walking through water.
Except you’d really be walking
through incredibly thick carbon dioxide.
If Earth expanded to twice its size,
the first big change you’d notice
is that you’d feel a lot heavier.
Within seconds,
you’d go from your 75 kg (165 lb) weight
to feeling like you were 150 kg (330 lb).
That would be because the force of gravity pulling on you
would be twice as strong.
You better hit the gym to strengthen up fast
because this wouldn’t be easy on your body.
Your heart would need to work twice as hard
to pump blood around,
and pressure would build up on your joints.
Jumping, flying or sending rockets into space
could become a thing of the past.
You’d need much more fuel, power and money
to leave Earth’s surface
and travel through its even thicker atmosphere.
Now, if the red planet ballooned to twice its size,
there’s a chance you would barely recognize it.
What was once a dry, desolate place
could eventually transform into a more Earth-like planet
with oceans, rivers and a thick atmosphere.
Mars lost its magnetic field and then its atmosphere,
likely because of chemical changes inside its core.
But if the Martian core got bigger and hotter,
it could restart the magnetic field.
And that, in turn,
would protect Mars from solar winds
and give it a chance at kick-starting life.
Doubled in size,
Jupiter would continue to be
an intimidatingly huge planet.
It would stay 318 times larger than Earth,
and 2.5 times more massive
than all the other planets combined.
And the impact of this would be so huge
that it would likely shift
the actual center of our Solar System.
You see, all the planets in our Solar System
don't exactly revolve around the Sun.
No, they orbit the common center of mass,
or barycenter.
And thanks to Jupiter’s normal size,
this barycenter is actually
48,000 km (30,000 mi) away from the center of the Sun.
But doubled up,
this point in space would move even further away from the Sun.
You’d see material from the asteroid belt
being pulled toward Jupiter,
or further out into the Solar System.
But even this big,
Jupiter wouldn’t be massive enough
to become a full-blown star.
To do that,
it would need to increase to 85 times its current mass.
Though it wouldn’t be far off from star status.
At thirteen times its original mass,
Jupiter could become a brown dwarf star.
With a bigger Saturn,
you could kiss its beautiful rings goodbye.
The monumental increase in the planet’s surface gravity
would upset the balance of the ring materials,
as well as Saturn’s five small moons.
They'd start falling toward its surface at a higher rate.
Saturn is already slowly losing its rings.
Every 30 minutes,
material containing enough water
to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool
falls down to the planet.
Now, beyond its added heft,
not all that much would change for the ice giant Uranus
way out on the edges of the Solar System.
It would continue holding the record for the stinkiest planet.
If doubling Uranus' size would mean
doubling the amount of hydrogen sulfide in its upper atmosphere,
this stinker might spread an even stronger stench of rotten eggs.
Ew.
I wouldn't go near this planet.
Neptune's fate
wouldn't be too different from its giant frozen neighbor.
Except Neptune’s increased gravitational pull
could eventually lead to the disappearance of some
or all of the billions of icy objects
located outside its orbit.
Neptune has already swallowed
the equivalent of 7 to 10 times the mass of Earth
in material from the Kuiper Belt.
If Pluto doubled in size,
it could be back on track
to regain its official status as a planet.
If its added mass and gravity
could manage to pull away debris
from its surrounding neighborhood,
it might just be able to rejoin the rest of the family.
Alright,
so it’s safe to say that all the planets doubling in size
wouldn’t exactly bring about a cataclysmic end of the Solar System.
It would, however, cause a little chaos.
But not nearly as much as if the Sun
became big enough to swallow Earth.
But, that’s a story
for another WHAT IF.