This Is How Much You’d Weigh On Jupiter

Our planet has so much to offer. There are so many places to go and things to see. However, you might wonder if there’s even more on other planets. Take Jupiter, for example. By far the largest planet, Jupiter may seem on a surface level to have more space for the growing population of Earthlings.

But you would have to wonder what it would actually be like to live on Jupiter. If you learn more about the planet itself, the answer might actually surprise you. Read on to learn about how much you’d weigh on Jupiter and other interesting information about life on the largest planet!

How Much Would You Weigh on Jupiter?

Assuming you’re actually able to find a place to stand on Jupiter, you would weigh about 2.53 times what you weigh on Earth. If you weigh 150 pounds on Earth, for example, you would weigh 379.5 pounds on Jupiter.

Here is a table showing how much people of different weights would weigh on Jupiter:

How Is Weight on Jupiter Determined?

Let’s break this down. You should understand that mass and weight are not the same thing. The mass is a measure of how much matter an object contains. In contrast, weight is a measure of the amount of attraction between you and another object. When you step on a scale, your weight is the measure of the force of attraction between you and the planet Earth.

Sir Isaac Newton came up with an equation that explained how to calculate the weight. It is as follows: F=Mm/r² (M is the mass of the planet, m is your mass, and r is the distance between you and the center of the planet. 

Jupiter actually has 318 times the amount of mass as Earth does. You might be surprised that your weight on Jupiter would only be 2.53 times your weight on Earth. However, you need to consider that the radius of Jupiter is 11 times that of Earth. This reduces what your weight would be by a factor of 11², or 121.

What Would Other Things Weigh on Jupiter?

Everything would weigh 2.53 times its earthly weight if it were to be transported to Jupiter.

For example, a mid-size car, which weighs 3,000 to 3,500 pounds here, would weigh 7,590 to 8,855 pounds on Jupiter. A standard basketball weighing in at 22 ounces (less than 1.5 pounds) on Earth would weigh close to 56 ounces (3.5 pounds) on Jupiter. A gallon of milk, weighing 8.6 pounds here, would be about 21.8 pounds on Jupiter. You get the idea!

How Much Does Jupiter Weigh?

The mass of Jupiter is 1.898 × 10²⁷ kilograms, or 4.184 × 10²⁷ pounds. This mass is more than 2.5 times that of every other planet in the solar system combined.

It may be surprising, then, to learn that Jupiter doesn’t really have a solid surface. Photos that have been collected of Jupiter have shown it as a planet with giant mass of gases. Jupiter is mostly made up of hydrogen, although approximately 25% of its mass and 10% of its volume comes from helium. Jupiter’s composition is similar to that of the Sun.

In the depths of the planet’s atmosphere, temperature and pressure go up, which leads to the gases that make up Jupiter being compressed into a liquid. This is considered by some scientists to be the largest ocean in the solar system.

Astronomers believe that about halfway to the center of the planet, the pressure becomes so intense that electrons are pushed off of the hydrogen atoms, causing the liquid to have a strong electrical conductivity. This is thought to be responsible for the powerful magnetic field for which Jupiter is known.

It’s also possible that Jupiter has a rocky core that is made up of heavier elements, but the planet does not have a well-defined solid surface as Earth does. Alternatively, the core could be a dense liquid composed primarily of iron and silicate materials. It could potentially be as hot as 90,032° Fahrenheit.

The core is thought to take up between 30 and 50% of Jupiter’s radius. Containing heavy elements, the mass of the core alone is between 7 and 25 times the mass of the Earth!

What Would It Be Like to Live on Jupiter?

It’s unlikely that any human will ever be able to live on Jupiter. The materials that make up Jupiter, along with the pressures and temperatures that are characteristic of this planet, make it too extreme of an environment for organisms to live in.

If humans tried to land on Jupiter, they wouldn’t be able to land since, as we have mentioned, there is no solid surface to stand on. Also, the atmosphere of Jupiter lacks oxygen, which humans need for survival.

You should also keep in mind that the temperatures are not bearable for humans. The average temperature is -238° Fahrenheit around the gaseous surface, and deeper into the planet, it becomes way too hot for any human to survive (2,500 miles in, it’s about 6,100° Fahrenheit!).

Jupiter is also the planet with the fastest spin in the solar system, taking only a little less than 10 hours to complete a full rotation. This will force you to deal with winds that can be more than 300 miles per hour. The fastest wind ever recorded on Earth was 253 miles per hour, recorded during Tropical Cyclone Olivia.

Could Any Life Survive on Jupiter?

Scientists believe that it’s not very likely that any life could be sustained on this planet. Any life that could be sustained on this planet would have to be very different from any organism that would be familiar to us here on Earth. Life forms on Jupiter would need the ability to fly or float, as the planet has no solid surface.

It is true that, in certain altitudes of the atmosphere, there are chemicals that may make life possible for certain life forms. There are flashes of lightning that could furnish the energy needed for chemical reactions that would sustain life, and temperatures are warm enough for certain life forms.

However, even in those areas, even the most simple organism would have a problem surviving. Jupiter is very windy, and the winds would either carry them to the depths of the planet. This is where the heat would fry them or lift them up closer to the gaseous surface, where they would either freeze or be terminated by radiation from outer space.

Even though it’s unlikely that any life could be maintained on Jupiter, the same is not necessarily true of its many moons. Europa, one of the 53 known moons of Jupiter, is actually considered to be one of the likeliest places where there could be life elsewhere in the solar system.

The photo featured at the top of this post is © joshimerbin/Shutterstock.com