What’s Your Jump on Different Planets? (3D Gravity Test)

Gravity is what keeps your feet firmly planted on the ground. That's why the average person can only jump about one and a half feet straight up. But if we had to live on another planet, say Venus or Saturn, let's find out what difficulties we'd have to endure there. We'll try Mercury first as it's closest to the Sun. The gravity on this planet is less than half that on Earth, so you'll be able to jump about 4 feet high, that is if you can stand the temperatures. On the sunny side, the heat reaches 800 degrees. To be there is like standing neck-deep in dark red lava on the slopes of a volcano. Oh boy! Night won't bring much respite either. Scorching air will quickly chill to minus 280 degrees. You'll also have to be patient since one day on Mercury lasts 176 Earth days. Well, hopping from this inhospitable place to, even less welcoming, Venus. You'd be able to see Earth from here if not for the whirling mass of clouds above. They create a monstrous greenhouse effect, as well as immense atmospheric pressure. If you were to jump here, you'd make it just shy of 1.7 feet high. Because the mass and size of Earth and Venus are almost similar with Venus being a little smaller. Besides the constant temperature of a blazing furnace, rain here wouldn't bring relief. The clouds up there are made of sulfuric acid. Skipping our home planet, we go straight for its moon, Luna as it's otherwise called. Gravity here is less than a fifth of that on Earth. So, if you jump, you'll rise almost 9 feet in the air and won't touch the ground again for several seconds. It's hard to believe this desolate piece of space rock makes tides on Earth habit. And if you stay on the Moon long enough, as in a couple million years, you'll see how much further it's gone from our home planet. Next destination is Mars, the red planet. Here, a vertical jump will take you about 4 feet in the air. If there was any air to speak of, of course. Mars has an atmosphere, but it's much thinner than on Earth. If you stay here until evening, you'll be able to marvel at a beautiful blue sunset. And you can probably see a mountain from here. That's Olympus Mons, the tallest mountain in the Solar System. It's almost three times taller than Everest. And it's also a volcano, by the way. Leaping from here to Phobos, one of the two moons of Mars, plant your feet firmly and don't be attempted to jump. Gravity here is so weak that you won't be able to return. Phobos is really small compared to other moons in the Solar System, no larger than a big asteroid. It's almost a hundred times closer to its planet than our moon to Earth. Eventually, it's doomed to be pulled critically close to Mars and shatter. Scientists believe Mars can obtain its own rings then, much like Saturn. Now we're going to a really weird object. It's called Ceres, and it's the largest asteroid in the Solar System. So large, in fact, it was later classified as a dwarf planet. It's almost exactly halfway between Mars and Jupiter, somewhere in the main asteroid belt. If you jump here, you'll be taken up almost 52 feet and then slowly fall back. Ceres is so massive that it accounts for a third of all mass in the asteroid belt. Fast forward to the next waypoint, Jupiter. Being a gas giant, this planet has no solid surface, so jumping here is irrelevant. But if you must, you could only hop about 6 inches high. Jupiter is more than 10 times larger than Earth and 300 times as massive, so its gravity is enormous. There's also a perpetual storm on its surface that's been there for at least 4 centuries. Although it's getting smaller with time, at the moment, our whole planet could fit into that storm. Our next stop is Ganymede, the largest of Jupiter's moons. It's solid, so you can easily jump here and make it over 10 feet high. This moon is larger than Mercury, but its mass is significantly lower, which makes gravity rather weak. Ganymede is covered in thick ice, and deep beneath that is a liquid metal core. This core is why Ganymede is the only moon to have a pretty strong magnetic field. Next, we go to Saturn, the second gas giant of the Solar System. It's only slightly smaller than Jupiter, able to fit 9 and a half moons in it, but way less massive. If it had any hard surface to jump from, you'd be able to hop as high as 1.4 feet in the air, almost as high as on our planet. Saturn is most famous for its rings, which are particles of dust and ice left from impacts with different space objects. It spins so fast around its axis that it has flattened itself almost into an oblong shape. It also has 62 moons, only 5 fewer than Jupiter. Let's explore one of them right now. Hopping further, and here we are, on the largest moon of Saturn, Titan. Jumping here will take you just shy of 11 feet high. The atmosphere of this moon is most peculiar. It's heavy, and mostly consists of nitrogen, making the surface appear hazy. It's also made almost entirely of ice, but there's rock underneath, and water is only thought to be deep below, near the core. And one amazing thing on Titan's outside are cryovolcanoes, volcanoes that spew ice instead of lava. Next on our path is Uranus, another giant, only this one is made of ice. In fact, it's mostly similar to Jupiter and Saturn, but it has much more ice in its atmosphere and mantle. Jumping here will take you up about 1.7 feet. Uranus is also the lowest minimum temperature of all planets in the system, at minus 377 degrees. It's colder than liquid nitrogen, so you'll freeze right where you stand. Cool. Really. Our route continues with Neptune, the twin brother of Uranus. It's also an ice giant, and although a bit smaller in size, it's much more massive. Because of this mass, the gravity here is also impressive. You'd only be able to jump about 1.3 feet. One year on Neptune takes almost 165 Earth years because it's 30 times further from the Sun than we are. In fact, this is the last proved planet of the Solar System. But our hopping trip isn't finished yet. We're arriving to Triton, one of Neptune's moons. Gravity here is not extremely low, so a single jump would take you a comfortable 19 feet up. Triton is the only moon that moves in a retrograde orbit, that is, against the movement of Neptune around its axis. It also has a unique surface feature called cantaloupe terrain, for its similarity to a melon. Next is the dark and lonely Pluto. Formerly the 9th planet, but now no more than a dwarf planet. Its gravity is somewhat lower than that of Triton's, and you could jump over 25 feet high here. Pluto is too small to be a fully fledged planet. It's smaller than many moons, including ours. Its atmosphere appears and disappears at times. When Pluto is closer to the Sun, the ice on its surface evaporates to become the atmosphere. But as soon as it travels further, the gas layer goes away. So hold your breath. And finally, our final stop. Finally. It's Eris. It's a dwarf planet that travels in and out of the Kuiper belt, a second asteroid belt that's 20 times as wide as the one between Mars and Jupiter. Jumping on Eris's surface would take you up about 18 feet. This object was actually the reason why the term dwarf planet appeared in the first place. Astronomers wanted to call it the 10th planet of the Solar System, but then reconsidered. And if they hadn't, who knows? Maybe we would've had even more planets afterwards. Oops, this just in. The Universe really doesn't care what we deem planets or moons. It's too busy with important stuff.