This Is How Much You’d Weigh On Uranus

In the middle of a hot summer, you might think that it would be nice to move to a colder planet. Uranus, the coldest planet in the solar system, may seem like a dream come true when you’re dealing with the scorching heat of Earth.

But would life on Uranus even be possible? It would definitely be different. Assuming it’s even possible to move to Uranus, there would be many things you’d have to get used to.

Uranus is a truly fascinating planet and definitely worth learning more about. Keep reading to learn more about what life would be like on this giant planet, including how much you’d weigh on Uranus.

How Much Would You Weigh on Uranus?

It isn’t really possible to stand on the cloud tops of Uranus. But for the sake of argument, let’s say it was. If you could find a place to stand on this planet, you would weigh 88.9% of what you do on Earth. If you weigh 100 pounds, for example, you would weigh 88.9 pounds on Uranus.

Here is a table that depicts how much people would weigh on Uranus (rounded to the nearest whole number):

How is Weight on Uranus Determined?

In order to understand why your weight would be different on Uranus than it is on Earth, you should understand the difference between mass and weight. Your mass is a measure of how much matter your body contains. Your weight, on the other hand, is a measure of the amount of attraction between you and Earth.

If you were in an area of outer space with zero gravity, your mass would remain the same, but you would become weightless.

Sir Isaac Newton created an equation that allows us to calculate how much we would weigh on any planet. This equation is F=Mm/r² (M being the mass of the planet, m being your mass, and r being the distance between you and the planet’s center).

Uranus has 14.536 more mass than Earth does. Generally, people would expect that a person would weigh more on Uranus than they would on Earth. However, surprisingly, this is not the case. Even though Uranus has significantly more mass than Earth, it has a much lower density.

Uranus has a radius of about 15,759 miles, making it approximately four times wider than Earth. Plugging all of these factors into the equation, your weight on Uranus would be pretty close to your weight on Earth – in fact, a little bit less.

What Would Other Things Weigh on Uranus?

All of the objects with which you are familiar would weigh 88.9% of what they do on Earth if they were to somehow be moved to Uranus.

A mid-size car, for example, weighs between 3,000 and 3,500 pounds on Earth and would weigh between 2,667 and 3,112 pounds on Uranus. A standard basketball weighs 22 ounces (1 pound, 6 ounces) here and would weigh about 19.6 ounces (1 pound, 3.6 ounces) on Uranus. A gallon of milk, which on Earth would weigh 8.6 ounces, would weigh in at slightly less on Uranus at about 7.6 ounces.

Basically, take the weight of any item on Earth, multiply it by a factor of 0.889, and you’ll get how much it weighs on Uranus.

How Much Does Uranus Weigh?

At 8.681 × 10²⁵ kilograms, or 1.914 × 10²⁶ pounds, Uranus has significantly more mass than Earth. But it’s far from being the largest planet. Jupiter has 21.9 times the mass that Uranus does.

Uranus has the second lowest density of any planet in the solar system, at only 1.27 grams per cubic centimeter. This planet is made up predominantly of ices, mostly water, ammonia, and methane. The methane is what gives Uranus a blue appearance when observing it from far away.

Uranus also has some rocky elements, these elements being equal to between 0.5 and 1.5 times the mass of Earth.

Jupiter and Saturn are mostly composed of helium and hydrogen, but the matter that makes up Uranus only contains a small percentage of these elements. The atmosphere, composed of gases, liquids, and ice, actually extends to the planet’s interior, which gives Uranus an undefined surface.

Most planets have rocky molten cores, but the center of Uranus is believed to contain icy materials. The core is thought to be made of liquid, composing 80% of the mass of this entire planet, although the core only makes up about 20% of the radius of Uranus.

The core of Uranus is thought to heat up to about 9,000° Fahrenheit. You may think this is really hot, but it’s actually very cool compared to the cores of other planets.

In fact, Uranus is the only planet that does not emanate more heat from its core than it gets from the Sun. When you consider that Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun (1.83 billion miles away), this highlights just how little heat comes from the core of the planet.

Could Any Life Survive on Uranus?

Scientists do not believe that life could be sustained on Uranus, at least not any life form similar to anything we know. The temperature of the cloud tops on the surface of the planet averages around -224° Celsius or -371.2° Fahrenheit; most life forms would not be able to survive at this temperature under any circumstances.

Of course, the planet gets increasingly warm as you get closer to the core. Theoretically, there could be a place inside the planet where the temperatures are conducive to life. However, at those locations, the pressures inside the planet are so high that life would not survive.

Additionally, there is no process inside Uranus that creates energy as volcanism does on Earth. Other giant gas planets receive a lot of power from their cores, but Uranus does not. It has been shown that Uranus radiates virtually no excess heat into outer space.

Uranus also receives far less energy than Earth from the Sun, as it is much further away from the Sun than Earth is. Thus, life in or on the planet Uranus would not have the energy needed in order to survive and thrive.