What Would Happen To Your Body On Each Planet In The Solar System — From Scorching to Crushing

Earth provides a unique combination of a breathable atmosphere and a protective magnetic field that shields life from harmful solar radiation and charged particles. The other seven planets in our Solar System each present a different, often deadly, set of conditions. Below is a planet-by-planet look at what would happen to an unprotected human body if you tried to reach the surface or near-surface of each world.

Mercury

Mercury, the planet nearest the Sun, has almost no atmosphere—only a thin exosphere—so solar heat and radiation hit the surface directly. Daytime temperatures can approach ~800°F (about 430°C), while nights can drop to roughly -290°F (-180°C). With gravity roughly one-third of Earth’s, you would weigh much less, but an unprotected human would quickly be destroyed by either extreme heat, extreme cold, or by suffocation due to the near-vacuum.

Venus

Venus is a hellscape hidden behind dense clouds. Its atmosphere is overwhelmingly carbon dioxide and creates a runaway greenhouse effect; surface temperatures are hot enough to melt lead. Surface pressure is roughly 92 bar (about 1,350 psi), comparable to being a mile underwater on Earth. The combination of extreme heat, crushing pressure, and toxic gases would vaporize or crush an unprotected body almost instantly.

Mars

Mars is the most Earth-like of the hostile worlds and the likeliest target for human settlement, but it is still dangerous. Gravity is about one-third of Earth’s, making movement easier, and daytime highs in some regions can reach near 70°F (20°C). However, nights and polar regions plunge to roughly -195°F (-125°C). The thin atmosphere is mostly CO2 with very little oxygen; dust storms can reach ~60 mph and obscure sunlight. Survival requires habitats and life-support systems to supply air, pressure, heat, and protection from dust.

Jupiter

Jupiter is a gas giant with no solid surface to stand on. Its visible atmosphere is dominated by hydrogen and helium and is inhospitable to breathing. Jupiter also produces intense radiation belts—its magnetosphere traps high-energy particles, delivering lethal doses of radiation within hours near the planet. Temperatures in the upper atmosphere are cold (around -166°F), but pressure and temperature rise rapidly with depth; models predict interior temperatures may reach tens of thousands of degrees, and pressures would crush any known spacecraft or human body long before reaching a core.

Saturn

Like Jupiter, Saturn is made mostly of hydrogen and helium and lacks a true solid surface. A human descending into Saturn would sink through cloud layers while choking on light gases. Wind speeds exceed 1,100 mph in some regions, and pressure increases with depth until gases compress into liquids—conditions that would crush and destroy human bodies and most equipment. Saturn’s rings, composed of countless ice and rock particles, pose additional hazards for approaches by spacecraft.

Uranus

Uranus is an ice giant composed largely of water, methane, and ammonia ices surrounding a small core. The upper atmosphere is extremely cold (around -320°F), and winds can reach roughly 560 mph. As you descend, pressure and temperature increase dramatically—estimates place interior temperatures at thousands of degrees—so a body would freeze, then be crushed and heated toward the interior.

Neptune

Neptune, another ice giant, has an atmosphere of hydrogen, helium and methane with upper temperatures near -346°F. It has the strongest winds in the Solar System—up to around 1,200 mph—lifting frozen particles and making any approach perilous. As with Uranus, extreme pressures and likely hot, dense fluid layers beneath the clouds would crush or melt a body long before any rocky core could be reached.

Bottom Line

Except on Earth—or within carefully engineered habitats and missions—visiting other planets exposes a person to lethal combinations of heat, cold, toxic gases, crushing pressure, and radiation. Each world presents distinct challenges that require far more advanced protection than ordinary space suits provide.