What it’s like to stand here

Elias 2-24 b

cloud tops: 5.38 g
sky: amber-orange

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

Elias 2-24 b

Elias 2-24 b is a confirmed gas-giant exoplanet 443 ly from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus, discovered in 2026 by W. M. Keck Observatory.

443 lyDiscovered in 2026 by W. M. Keck Observatory

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

Elias 2-24 →

host star

13.20 R⊕

radius

938 M⊕

mass · measured

–

orbital period

–

avg temp

Human scale

Elias 2-24 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 amber-orange light.

5.38 g

surface gravity (no solid surface · measured mass)

CALCULATEDEXCLUDED

–

one year, in Earth time

–

sun size, needs orbit

amber-orange

midday sky tint

–

jump, needs solid ground

normal

day/night cycle (not tidally locked)

Elias 2-24 b has no solid surface, so its gravity is the pull at the cloud tops, and it is excluded from surface-gravity rankings.

Calculate your exact weight on Elias 2-24 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 5.4 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 demoEXPERIMENTAL · just for fun

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