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No. Look at this:

Why is the Earth's core so hot? Was the Earth once a star, before it became a planet?

Earth's core temperature is about 6,000° C. By coincidence, this is about the same as the Sun's surface temperature (but muchcooler than the Sun's core temperature, which is about 15,600,000° C). The Earth's core is cooling, but at a very slow rate. Over the past three billion years it has probably cooled by a few hundred degrees. Currently, the Earth's core temperature is not changing much because, through radioactive decay (nuclear fission - the breakup of the nuclei of heavy elements, like uranium), it is generating about as much heat as it is losing.

To answer the second part of this question, some definitions are in order. A star is a self-luminous body that shines by generating energy internally through nuclear fusion (the combining of nuclei of light elements like hydrogen and helium). The Sun is a star. A planet shines by reflected light from the Sun. The solar system has nine "major" planets (of which Earth is one) and innumerable "minor" planets (asteroids and comets of various kinds).

Star masses range from about 0.04 times, to 150 times, the mass of the Sun. The mass of the Earth is 0.000003 times that of the Sun (and the mass of Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, is 0.001 times that of the Sun).

Although stars lose mass as they evolve, none lose enough to wind up anywhere near the mass of even the most massive planet. So, the bottom line is: Stars do not evolve into planets.

For a great animated simulation showing the evolution of stars with masses between 0.1 and 120 times that of the Sun see the stellar evolution simulation created by Terry Herter for his Astronomy 101/103 course at Cornell University. You will need a JAVA enabled browser to view this simulation.

Source: see related link. The author of this excerpt is not me, it is Dr. Ed Tedesco. Credit goes to him.

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12y ago

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