What If We Refueled the Sun With Jupiter?

In 5 billion years, we're going to have a hefty problem on our hands. Well, only if we're still living on Earth. At this point, our Sun will be on the brink of collapse. If we don't find a way to give it all the fuel it needs, well, we're toast. How could Jupiter help us refuel the Sun? What other stars have consumed gas giants? And what would life be like without Jupiter? This is what if, and here's what would happen if we refueled the Sun with Jupiter. The Sun's delicate balance of hydrogen and helium keeps us alive and well. Although you might think there's an infinite ball of energy up there, I hate to break it to you, but the Sun's not sticking around forever. In order to keep it going, our Sun needs a consistent source of hydrogen at its core. The Sun's hydrogen is converted to helium in the process of nuclear fusion. This fusion reaction is exothermic, meaning it gives off more energy than it consumes. This energy is released as gamma radiation, which provides enough of an outward push of gravity to keep the Sun from imploding. So how exactly can Jupiter help with all this? Well, about 90% of Jupiter's atmosphere is made of hydrogen. This makes it one big ball of fuel even though it's only 0.01% the mass of the sun. Astronomers have located a sun similar to ours that has been eating a Jupiter like gas giant called Wasp 12B. Good one science. I hate Wasps too. Wasp 12 B's atmosphere is being sucked up by its star, forming a hot ring of gas around it as its atmosphere is pulled outward. This is making the planet puff up to six times the size of Jupiter. Our Sun gobbles up hydrogen at a rate of 620 million metric tons per second. With four gas giants in our solar system, we could keep the Sun sizzling for another 87,000,000 years. With Jupiter being the biggest, we'd probably want to start there. In order to pull this off, we'd need to set up Jupiter like WASP 12B, close enough to the Sun to deliver a constant influx of hydrogen from its atmosphere. It would have to be just enough hydrogen so that no mass is added or lost from the Sun. In other words, like a healthy diet and exercise with an occasional cheat day. But couldn't we just smash Jupiter into the Sun? That sounds like more fun to me. Well, this would make for some good fireworks, but this would increase the Sun's mass too quickly, causing it to burn hot enough to turn global warming into global roasting. The key is to keep the Sun's mass stable so it's fusion remains consistent at its core. Even if we managed to nudge Jupiter close enough to the Sun, that could lead to a whole slew of other problems because without Jupiter's stable gravitational pull, all of our planetary orbits, including Earths, would be thrown off course and we'd lose our precious shield against deadly asteroids and comets. So realistically, we'd probably have to suck it up and move somewhere else. Who knows, maybe there's a really nice Earth like exoplanet out there for us to settle. Let's just hope it's not already populated by hungry aliens. Whatever the scenario is, that's a story for another What if?