Planet Size, Gravity and how it would affect a person

dots03 · 25-02-2011 03:44PM #1

apologies if this is more suited to the Physics forum (feel free to move it), but I have a question regarding gravity & the affect it would have on a person.

Suppose you had a planet the size of the sun, would gravity squash a regular human due to the mass of the planet...or would other factors such as atmosphere also need to be taken into consideration.

thanks for any help in helping me understand this.

slade_x · 25-02-2011 10:34PM

dots03 wrote: »

apologies if this is more suited to the Physics forum (feel free to move it), but I have a question regarding gravity & the affect it would have on a person.

Suppose you had a planet the size of the sun, would gravity squash a regular human due to the mass of the planet...or would other factors such as atmosphere also need to be taken into consideration.

thanks for any help in helping me understand this.

Yes from the mass alone would be enough to crush a human

If you weighed 10 stone on earth, at the surface of the sun you would weigh almost 30 times that which would be almost 300 stone

Also if you applied the same to jupiter you would weigh about 25 stone

backboiler · 25-02-2011 11:16PM

I'm fairly sure a planet that reached the the size of the Sun will always be a star (gravity is sufficient to cause nuclear fusion near the core) so the atmospheric effect of a few kilokelvins would be a nuisance as well!

Rubecula · 26-02-2011 10:19AM

An interesting question, but I am not sure you could find a planet even as big as Jupiter with a solid surface you could actually reach. The atmosphere would crush you, and you would be evaporated long before you got down far enough to find out if there was a solid surface at all.

To stand on the surface of something as large as the sun, you would need to wait a long time until it burned out and cooled enough to form a surface, and who knows what the atmosphere would be like?

Just assuming you could stand on it, hmmmmm Strawberry jam anyone?

Tefral · 26-02-2011 10:30AM

If we evolved on a planet with more gravity, surely our bone structure would be far more dense to cope with the larger gravity? Id hazard a guess and say we wouldnt be as tall as we are now either?

dots03 · 28-02-2011 01:08PM

cheers for the replies. much appreciated.

enda1 · 28-02-2011 01:12PM

cronin_j wrote: »

If we evolved on a planet with more gravity, surely our bone structure would be far more dense to cope with the larger gravity? Id hazard a guess and say we wouldnt be as tall as we are now either?

Basically yes we'd be smaller - because smaller structures are more structurally efficient.

BULLER · 01-03-2011 01:41AM

Similarly an earth-like planet with less gravity would have mile high trees and massive airborne animals

slade_x · 01-03-2011 04:01AM

BULLER wrote: »

Similarly an earth-like planet with less gravity would have mile high trees and massive airborne animals

Not necessarily, you would accomplish much of the same with having higher average concentrations of oxygen for example, much like the conditions necessary for the existance of the largest of prehistoric dinosaurs. oh and of course higher atmospheric density

Planet Size, Gravity and how it would affect a person

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