What it’s like to stand here

CHXR 73 b

weight: 26.40 g
sky: dim red

Illustration computed from this world’s measured and derived values, not a photograph.

CHXR 73 b

CHXR 73 b is a confirmed gas-giant exoplanet 621 ly from Earth in the constellation Chamaeleon, discovered in 2006 by Hubble Space Telescope.

621 lyDiscovered in 2006 by Hubble Space Telescope

Imaging: photographed directly, as a faint point of light beside its star.

CHXR 73 →

host star

12.30 R⊕

radius

3,994 M⊕

mass · measured

–

orbital period

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avg temp

Human scale

CHXR 73 b is a giant ball of gas with no solid surface to stand on; you would simply sink into ever-thicker cloud. Bathing the cloud tops in dim red light.

26.40 g

surface gravity (no solid surface · measured mass)

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one year, in Earth time

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sun size, needs orbit

dim red

midday sky tint

0.0×

how high you could jump vs Earth

normal

day/night cycle (not tidally locked)

Calculate your exact weight on CHXR 73 b →

What these mean: surface gravity · tidal locking · equilibrium temperature

If your children grew up herea playful thought experiment

There is no ground here to grow up on, only bottomless sky. A child could never stand, walk, or even fall to a surface, because there isn't one. Under 26.4 times Earth's gravity and pressure that only climbs the deeper you go, anything built for this world would not look human at all: picture something closer to a deep-sea creature than a person, broad and buoyant, drifting through the cloud decks with no need for legs and no floor to land on.

Body plan: Floating, not upright; With no surface and no fixed up or down, a skeleton built for standing would be useless; a drifting, gas-filled body would not.
Build: Broad and pressure-hardened; Pressure rises without limit toward the interior, so anything alive would have to be built like a deep-sea animal, not a land one.

A playful thought experiment from this world’s gravity, not a prediction about any real person. No human has ever grown up off Earth, so no one truly knows; the direction (taller in low gravity, shorter and stockier in high) follows how growing bodies respond to weight.

Hear how a voice sounds herea computed acoustic demo

Your voice would sound a thin, helium-fast squeak.

There is no surface to stand on, and we have no temperature for this world, so its cloud-top acoustics cannot be modelled. In hydrogen-helium air sound races, so a voice would leap to a thin, almost cartoonish squeak.

The journey

Cosmic travel advisory

★☆☆☆☆

Do not travel