As more and more space ships, probes, telescopes, and satellites are launched into space, the once unfathomable depths of our solar system become all the more knowable and familiar.
And with each Starship launch, SpaceX gets closer and closer to putting astronauts on Mars.
But what about beyond Mars? Would it be possible one day for astronauts to walk on other planets? As the next planet out from Mars, could a Jupiter walk be a part of our future?
Well, no, not really.
Besides the fact that Jupiter has an extremely toxic atmosphere, packed with hydrogen and helium and other gases that wouldn’t allow us to breathe, it is very cold too. With temperatures below negative one-hundred degrees celsius on its surface, and volatile weather conditions, the planet would not be able to support life. It is these atmospheric conditions that are responsible for the iconic images of Jupiter’s surface that we see on the internet and in our science books.
But the biggest problem at all is just that: its surface. Jupiter – the largest planet in our Solar System – has no surface: as a gas giant, the planet has no solid ground, as Clarkson University’s Benjamin Roulston explains in an article for The Conversation:
“While the four inner planets of the solar system – Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars – are all made of solid, rocky material, Jupiter is a gas giant with a composition similar to the Sun; it’s a roiling, stormy, wildly turbulent ball of gas. Some places on Jupiter have winds of more than 400 mph (about 640 kilometers per hour), about three times faster than a Category 5 hurricane on Earth.”
So we’ve established that a Jupiter walk wouldn’t be possible. But what would actually happen if humans went to the planet?
Well, the biggest preventative factor would be Jupiter’s pressure.
As Roulston goes on to describe, the pressure on the surface layers of Jupiter – let alone deeper into its atmosphere – would be enough to crush a human:
“As the layers of gas above you push down more and more, it’s like being at the bottom of the ocean – but instead of water, you’re surrounded by gas. The pressure becomes so intense that the human body would implode; you would be squashed.”
If we were somehow to combat this intense pressure, we would find some of Jupiter’s most unique peculiarities. Namely an ocean made of liquid hydrogen, caused by the pressure on the hydrogen that forms much of Jupiter’s atmosphere.
And at the core of the gas planet? This remains to be determined. Scientists estimate that at the centre of Jupiter is a dense melted metal core, caused to be this way by the planet’s extreme pressure.
Even this core isn’t solid; if you were to defy both physics and human biology to make it to the core, setting foot in it would lead to you instantly dissolving into its hot, melty depths.
That’s not a fate that anyone would want to encounter.
If you thought that was interesting, you might like to read about a second giant hole has opened up on the sun’s surface. Here’s what it means.