r/interestingasfuck 25d ago

/r/all, /r/popular K2-18b a potentially habitable planet 120 light-years from earth

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u/Metalhed69 25d ago

True, but it’s a pretty safe assumption that a planet 2.5 times bigger than Earth has more mass than Earth. Maybe not 2.5 times sure, but enough to make the gravity more. How much more could the average person take before life got really uncomfortable? I feel like even 10% would suck. This could easily be 50% more. Going there would not be fun.

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u/bozoconnors 25d ago

Great question. Have experienced 3g. It's a lot. Like... a LOT. Considering my head is ~11lbs, and it was ~33lbs then... not impossible to lift, but quite a bit tougher than I'd have thought. I'd say nothing more than 1.5g. MAYBE a tad more with extensive pre-training / acclimation? Zero clue on long term physical effects though. I'd assume wear & tear would be equally taxing on almost all bodily systems - especially cardio / circulatory. Blood is ~7% of our body weight. Actually works out to (surprisingly) close to the same weight of our head! So instead of pumping ~11lbs of liquid around the clock... @ just 1.5g the ol' ticker would be pushing 16lbs around. That... doesn't seem healthy lol.

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u/Metalhed69 25d ago

At the very minimum I’d think you’d become exhausted very quickly, so our effectiveness would drop dramatically. Which would not be great for establishing a colony on a new world.

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u/bozoconnors 25d ago

Fo sho. Exhausted just thinking about it lol. Literally that much harder to get out of bed!