Jupiter, the 5th planet from the sun, is the biggest planet in our solar system.
A gas giant, 11 times the size of earth, and 318 times as massive.
In comparison, our earth is tiny.
The earth is around 7 thousand nine hundred miles across.
Jupiter’s diameter is 87 thousand miles.
But what if earth were as big as Jupiter?
How would that affect the life forms and planet itself?
That’s the question we’re asking today on life’s biggest questions.
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Jupiter has been known to astronomers for thousands of years, but it was first observed
closely by Galileo using a telescope of his own design.
It is a huge planet, far bigger than our own.
Of course, life forms do not exist on Jupiter because it’s a gas giant.
But life forms do exist on earth.
What would happen if the earth were the same size as Jupiter.
Firstly, There would be a lot more land, and therefore a lot more space for people and
wildlife.
Imagine a north America that’s 11 times the size it currently is.
It can be assumed that Much of this massive planet would be uninhabited, and it would
have taken a lot longer for it to become populated.
There would also be far more water and other resources.
But whether or not life forms would still exist is another story.
If they did, they would likely look a lot different than the life forms that currently
exist on earth.
If earth were the size of Jupiter, it would exert a far greater gravitational force.
Jupiter is a gas giant, but the earth is a mostly solid rock.
Because of this, This super earth would exhert a rafitational force 100 times greater.
Which would make it very difficult for life to move around, if there was any life at all.
According to Wolfram Alpha, this much gravity would cause either extreme injury or death
for humans.
I mean, youre multiplying your weight by 11.
That’s pretty heavy.
Essentially, our spines would crush under our own weight.
If life forms did exist on this massive planet, they would be very short or small.
Ever wonder why astronauts grow taller when they’re in space?
Lesser gravity allows the fluid between the vertebrae to expand.
The opposite would happen with more gravity.
The life forms that would exist on this huge planet would also move around very slowly.
It would be very hard to jump, climb or run.
Life forms, if they existed, would grow tired very quickly, and require a lot of time to
rest.
On a Jupiter sized planet, the life forms would be sturdy, with muscular limbs, kind
of like beefed up corgis.
Plant life would also be much smaller, and would also have to be made up of far stiffer
fibers, or be made out of another material altogether.
It would be difficult for plant life to grow very tall.
Right now, there is actually a limit on how tall a tree can grow, and that’s because
of gravity.
A tree keeps growing for as long as the amount of energy it gets from photosynthesis is more
than the amount of energy needed to transport water to the top of the tree.
More gravity means it would take far more energy to water to move up the planet so therefore,
trees on this planet would be short.
The climate on a Jupiter sized earth would also be much different, likely colder, and
dryer.
Weather takes a long time to travel.
Rain already has a tough time reaching the center of continents.
The earth would take much longer to rotate, so a day on this massive earth would be much
longer as well.
The slower rotational speed would also have an effect on the seasons.
A Jupiter sized earth would probably have a very thick atmosphere, since the gravitational
force is so great.
And of course, the earth would become very unstable.
More mass means more volcanic activity.
Current dormant volcanoes would be constantly exploding, spewing lava and dust into theatmosphere.
Increased volcanic activity would also have some pretty profound effects on the atmosphere.
And forget space travel.
Its already extremely difficult and expensive for humans to leave the earth, it would be
far more difficult if the earth were the size of Jupiter.
Bodies of water would be 10 times the size.
10 times wider, and 10 times deeper.
It would be incredibly difficult for life forms to cross huge rivers like this.
Because the earth would be much larger, it would also attract far more objects in its
orbit.
In short, the earth would have far more natural satellites than just our one moon.
The gravitational pull would also pull far more space objects toward us.
Asteroids and comets would wallop the planet.
Its difficult to imagine what would happen to life forms and our planet itself it it
were the size of Jupiter.
Right now, we haven’t discovered any other planets in the universe that support life,
so its difficult to predict.
But we hope this video has given you some insight, and maybe inspired you to look into
the question further on your own.
What do you think would happen if the earth was as big as Jupiter?
Let me know in the comments.
For now, I’m going to respond to some comments from my last video, what if an asteroid hit
antartica.
The Immortal Super Being – What if the library of Alexandia never got burned.
I actually LOVE this suggestion.
Its definitely a question worth answering.
Mohammed Zain – when will water or energy resources run out – we have actually answered
both these questions before.
Check out the links on the screen.
Ayush – background music?
We will never tell.
NEVER.
Muahahha.
Vince – what if an asteroid hit youtube rewind.
Will smith would still say, that’s hot.
The brick guy – you’re just running out of ideas now.
People have been saying that for 2 years now and guess what?
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