Exploring the Ending of 2010: Odyssey Two and Its Mysterious Monoliths

[DHF]

(I realized that this was posted in the wrong place, I intended to post it in the Science Fiction & Fantasy section. I apologize for incorrect placement)

The following will contain spoilers. Considering this book has been out for over thirty years however I am hoping anyone reading this has already read said book.Its been a long time since I last read this book and for the most part it was a joy remembering all the great moments. the one part that stuck out at me however was the ending. Apart from the obvious hand-waving with the monoliths magically replicating in order to increase Jupiter's mass, thus kick-starting stellar fusion...was there any explanation as to why all of Jupiter's moons didn't fall from orbit? I mean they have been happily circling for billions of years but if the mass they were orbiting suddenly increased a hundred fold, wouldn't Europa and all the others fall into the new found star's surface?

Did I miss some crucial bit of info or was this something were were supposed to ignore, like the fact that the first book took place around Saturn and then suddenly in this novel we were 4AUs off.

 

[mfb]

As far as I remember, the mass doesn't change, Jupiter is just made more compact (by some magic). Increasing the mass would indeed disturb the orbits of the moons. On the other hand, if you have a magic device that can create mass, why not have a magic device that can speed up the moons to stay in orbit...

 

[DHF]

Ah, I assumed the mass was increasing because more pressure on the core without more mass doesn't make any sense but you have a point, as long as you are waving your hands, might as well make it jazz hands.