How Long You Would Survive on Each Planet in the Solar System

When you think about it, it’s a bit surprising that humans want to travel to planets other than Earth. I mean, we have pizza, breathable air, dogs, and a couple of good movies a year. What does Mercury, Jupiter, or any other in-system planets have to offer? Not much besides a certain, painful death in the event of a disaster.

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Since you’re curious, though, here’s exactly how fast you would die on planets other than Earth if you weren’t wearing a space suit. Spoiler alert: it’s gonna be about 2 minutes, max.

Mercury

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800 degrees in the sun and -290 in the shade, you could survive about 2 minutes on Mercury – if you stood in the perfect spot and held your breath.

Venus

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Venus has the same gravity as Earth, so you might feel comfortable there…if it weren’t 900 degrees. So actually you’d vaporize in less than one second. Bummer.

Mars

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Mars is cold, but that won’t kill you. You’d just need some very warm clothing. That said, given the unbreathable atmosphere, you’ll only be able to survive as long as you can hold your breath.

Jupiter

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This is sort of a trick question because there’s not really anywhere to land on this gas planet. But if you went far enough into the atmosphere, you would be crushed in less than a second by the pressure of the planet’s layers.