Jupiter and saturn are they really planets?

I'm very curious about this and I began to start THINKING you know using my HEAD something they call a BRAIN and I wondered about something...

Jupiter and Saturn are known as planets but is that what they really are?

Are Jupiter and Saturn really planets or are we being mislead?

I did some digging and found out something very interesting.

so this is my question to you.

Are Jupiter and Saturn actually unborn stars?

Lets here your feedback.

Cheddarfix

oh!!! that never crossed my mind... but that- that sounds- like so true!

do you watch planet earth? it would be something good for you too watch. check your listings, or go onto you tube type in planet earth, then do some researching. ido like your qustions although.

they're planets, quite simple.

I'm not sure who would be out to mislead you on this or what they would hope to gain through the deception, but yes, they are planets. Having said that, there is considerable evidence to suggest that if Jupiter had managed to gather just a small percentage more matter during its creation, there would have been enough mass to initiate fusion within its core and we would now be living in a binary system with two stars in the sky.

A key point in your question needs to some elaboration, however. What do you consider an "unborn" star? Stars are typically "born" from the gaseous remnants of other dead stars that have long since "passed on," or from the slow accretion of interstellar gas and dust, not from well-established gas giants. But supposing someone started shoveling hydrogen into Jupiter's atmosphere, then sure, since it has the potential to become a star, we could consider Jupiter a star that wasn't.

They're planets. I don't see why they'd be unborn stars. When I think of unborn stars or something like that, I think of the sun. They have atmospheres too. I don't think stars have atmospheres.

The problem here is not the objects themselves, but the defintion of planet. My astrophysics is fuzzy, but my understanding is that anything that orbits a star and is over a certain size (and is not itself a star) qualifies as a planet. So yes, they are planets - even though, as mikeh points out, Jupiter could have been a star if it was just a bit bigger.

 
Sillist1s, the sun IS a star!

I partially agree with arachnid on that the problem is the definition. The fact is that particular definition is misleading and the definition of what a planet is needs to be revised.

In my opinion Jupiter and Saturn are not planets but unborn stars. Meaning that if they were larger they would be stars.

But if the circumstances are right and man decides to experiment with these gas giants then under the right conditions they could become mini stars.

...Yeah... They are planets, "unborn stars" or not. There's many extrasolar planets, that have been detected, larger then Jupitar.

I still have to disagree that gas giants are planets

Gas giants are under the requirements for planets, even if they are nearly large enough to be stars.