What would human beings look like if they lived on an outer planet?

What would human beings look like if they lived on an outer planet?

There are many planets in the universe that are completely different from the Earth: frozen planets with temperatures of minus one to two hundred degrees Celsius all year round, lava planets with temperatures as high as thousands of degrees Celsius, vacuum planets with almost no air, etc. What will happen if humans colonize these planets for many years?

Live on hockey

What will become of people living on frozen planets? To answer this question, we might as well observe the animals and resident species living in the polar regions. You will find that most of them are “white-haired” and “ice-skinned”, and rarely see species with dark fur or dark skin. Why is this?

Due to the high latitude and the small incident angle of the sun, the polar regions receive very little sunlight, which will affect an important vitamin in animals and humans—vitamin D. We can only ingest the synthetic raw materials of vitamin D from food. These raw materials react with ultraviolet rays in the sun to produce vitamin D. There is less sunlight at the poles, so the content of vitamin D will decrease. Light-colored body hair and skin can transmit more ultraviolet rays than darker ones, so the body hair and skin color of animals and humans living in the polar regions will evolve to white and transparent colors. In addition, thicker body hair can also “trap” more ultraviolet light and heat. In this way, we can predict that people living in ice planet will become “white” and “fluffy”.

People living in the polar regions will also be taller and stronger than people in warmer regions, because they need to consume more food to preserve calories, and the more they eat, the bigger they are.In addition to the need to produce more heat, it is also necessary to reduce heat dissipation from the body surface.  German biologist Carl Bergman found that when the weight is the same, slender people dissipate heat faster than short and stout people.

As a result, people in the polar regions have evolved to have shorter limbs and stronger bodies based on their larger body weight. Anthropologists of the Chinese Academy of Sciences scanned 295 images of modern human skulls and found that the cold environment would give people facial features such as small eyes, thick lips, high nose bridge, and large cheekbones.

In this way, the human beings living in ice planet may move closer to the image of a “snowman”.

Live on fireball

At present, the most heat-resistant animal we have found on earth is a mollusk called Pompeii worm, which was found in a hot spring in the Pacific Ocean with a temperature as high as 80°C. In order to cool down, its back is covered with a layer of “blanket”. Each hair on the blanket is hollow, which is good for heat dissipation.

Scientists have measured that the temperature at the opening of the “blanket” is only about half of the worm’s body temperature. In addition, the worms also breed a group of sulfur bacteria in the “blanket”. The sulfur bacteria can convert sulfur compounds into oxygen and food for the worms, so that the Pompeii worms can survive in the “deep water” environment. If people live in hot springs, they may evolve into “worm people.”

But if the temperature is higher, such as the inner core area of ​​gaseous planets with temperatures as high as several thousand degrees, or planets with land temperatures reaching several hundred degrees Celsius, it is still difficult for organisms to survive in these places, even less likely to evolve intelligent creatures like humans. But the atmosphere on these planets may be a habitable environment. For example, the troposphere of Venus at a distance of 50 kilometers has a temperature of about 30°C, and the pressure is equal to the atmospheric pressure of the earth’s sea level. Perhaps “birdmen” can live here.

In order to adapt to flying life, the “birdman” should have a pair of powerful wings, covered with dark feathers, these feathers also help reflect strong ultraviolet radiation. At the same time, the bones of the “Birdman” are hollow, there are no teeth, muscle tissue, fat tissue, etc. are as small and light as possible, so that they can fly. 

Living in the air, it is also difficult for us to find more food, so we need to “feed” some photosynthetic bacteria like Pompeii worms. Each “birdman” symbiosis with a group of photosynthetic bacteria. Of course, in order to lose weight, the brain will gradually shrink, and the IQ of the “birdman” will be lower than that of people living on land.

Living in a vacuum

What would happen if humans lived on a planet with no atmosphere like Mars?

There is no atmosphere, which means there is no oxygen. In fact, when life on earth just originated, it also lived without oxygen. Later, some larger archaebacteria swallowed smaller bacteria, and the two species began to live in symbiosis. Slowly, the bacteria became the mitochondria of the archaea, and the organisms began to breathe and evolve in a more complex direction. If there is no oxygen, what will happen to living creatures that live without oxygen?

Just like when we take an oxygen tank when diving, if the atmosphere cannot provide the oxygen necessary for survival, we may parasitize on the “oxygen tank”. Not long ago, Israeli scientists discovered a parasite in salmon that does not breathe. It has no genes encoding mitochondria and no organelles for respiration. 

Scientists believe that it survives by directly absorbing energy materials that sustain life activities from the host. Therefore, if humans cannot get oxygen, maybe we will live a parasitic life. Of course, there are still some anaerobic bacteria living on the earth. They live by photosynthesis or metabolizing sulfide and iron compounds. Humans may also evolve into an “iron-eater” in this direction. 

British paleontologist Dougal Dixon described an “iron-eater” in science fiction: it is covered with a rigid spherical shell to protect the internal organs from insufficient gravity; because of insufficient food and low gravity, the bone density will decrease.

The limbs of the “iron-eater” may slowly shrink and can only crawl and live; It may have dark skin or wear “sunglasses” at all times, this is to reduce the impact of direct sunlight; In order to make better use of the limited energy materials, it may evolve more lungs or stomachs, carrying out double breathing similar to birds and ruminating activities of herbivores.

Other forms of human beings

There are many strange planets in the universe. If humans live on these planets, there will be other forms, such as “water planet” filled with water, and humans may evolve into “Merman”. Our body will become streamlined, the skin will be covered with scales instead of hair, and the limbs will evolve into flippers, which helps reduce resistance and can move quickly in the water. Store more fat under the skin to resist the cold in the water. The eyes will be covered with a waterproof and light-concentrating film to adapt to the dark bottom, and the lungs will be replaced by fish gills.

On some planets locked by stellar tides, because the planets are “grabbed” by the gravitational force of the stars, they can only use the same face to face the star. The side facing the star will always be sunny, and the humans living here may become ” Vegetative”. Our body will be covered by chloroplasts and photosynthesize throughout the day. In order to capture more sunlight and lose more heat, we will also grow more “branches” and “leaves”. At the same time, a pair of nostrils is not enough to inhale enough carbon dioxide, so the “leaves” will also have stomata. 

Humans living on super planets with very large masses will also be very different from humans on Earth. Under conditions of high gravity, the heart must use greater force to pump blood. Therefore, people living on this planet may have a stronger heart, and they will also grow shorter, thereby reducing the pressure on the heart to pump blood. Since our weight increases with the increase in gravity, in order to support a heavier body, human beings living on a large-gravity planet may evolve in the direction of centipedes, growing as many legs as possible, and at the same time, the bones will be more Firmness, muscle tissue will be more developed.

The universe is so vast and magical, and there are various possibilities for the biological forms in the planet. The reason why the earth people have evolved into what they are now is actually just a coincidence.