- weight
- 0.18 g
Illustration computed from this world’s measured and derived values, not a photograph.
PSR B1257+12 b
PSR B1257+12 b is a confirmed rocky exoplanet 1,957 ly from Earth in the constellation Virgo, discovered in 1994 by Arecibo Observatory.
Pulsar Timing: spotted by tiny shifts in the steady beat of its host pulsar.
Standing on PSR B1257+12 b, you would weigh about 82% less than you do on Earth. It is likely tidally locked, so that sun never moves in the sky: one hemisphere in endless day, the other in permanent night. A year passes in just 25 days.
What these mean: surface gravity · tidal locking · equilibrium temperature
If your children grew up herea playful thought experiment
Low gravity, 0.18 times Earth's. A child who grew up here could become strikingly tall and lightly built, about 1.4x taller than on Earth: a 5 ft 10 in adult could stand nearer 8 ft 3 in, with long limbs and slender bones.
- Bones
- Light and slender
- With little weight to carry, the growing skeleton lays down far less bone, the way astronauts' bones thin in months of low gravity.
- Heart
- Unhurried
- With less weight pulling blood down toward the feet, the heart has far less work to do.
- Movement
- Bounding and springy
- So little weight means each step would carry the body up and forward in long, floating strides.
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 much as it does on Earth.
We do not yet have a temperature for this world, and its atmosphere is unknown, so its acoustics cannot be modelled. In Earth-like air a human voice carries as you know it, and without the temperature that is as far as the physics will take us.
- !Far too little gravity, 0.18 times Earth's, to hold a breathable atmosphere: effectively an airless vacuum.
- !Likely tidally locked: one hemisphere in endless day, the other in permanent night.
A playful read of PSR B1257+12 b’s measured and computed values, not a real advisory.
How long to get there · 1,957 ly away
Zoom out: star → system → (soon) galaxy arm, host black hole, and a real image of the host galaxy.
What is the gravity on PSR B1257+12 b?
PSR B1257+12 b's surface gravity is about 0.18 times Earth's.
How much would you weigh on PSR B1257+12 b?
Someone who weighs 150 pounds on Earth would weigh about 26 pounds on PSR B1257+12 b.
How far is PSR B1257+12 b from Earth?
PSR B1257+12 b lies about 1,957 light-years from Earth.
How long would it take to get to PSR B1257+12 b?
At the speed of NASA's Parker Solar Probe, the fastest craft ever built, the journey would take about 3.1 million years.
How long is a year on PSR B1257+12 b?
PSR B1257+12 b completes one orbit of its star in 25 days.
Illustration generated from PSR B1257+12 b's confirmed parameters, not a photograph.