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Doubt Superman’s Strength, ‘Flop’ in Gravity Effect?

Jakarta, CNN Indonesia

Supermana super hero character aka a superhero created by DC Comics, has great power because of differences gravity in his hometown, Planet Krypton, with Earth. Is this concept scientifically valid?

Quoted from Scienceworld, Superman was born on the planet Krypton which is much larger in size and with a stronger gravitational force than Earth. When the planet collapses, Jor-El puts Kal-El (Krypton Superman’s name) into a rocket headed for Earth.

As he grows up on Earth, Superman, who goes by the name Earth Clark Kent, increasingly shows his potential strength because Earth’s gravity doesn’t affect him as much as Krypton’s.

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Famous for the S logo on the chest, Superman is described as having a super physique; immune to bullets and sharp weapons, moving as fast as lightning, armed with laser eyes, invisibility vision, freezing breath, to be able to transport buildings.

In the comic story, Superman, is able to lift objects weighing 2 billion tons. In comparison, the Empire State Building weighs 365 thousand tons.

With the power of the ‘complete package’, Superman becomes one of the strongest characters in the DC Universe.

However, is it true that such a concept of strength can be obtained from the gravitational gap?

The US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said that astronauts who fly into space can experience various body conditions.

Namely, loss of bone and muscle mass, changes in heart performance, behavioral variations, and other physical changes triggered by changes in the nervous system due to living in a micro-gravity space, aka almost zero gravity.

What astronauts experience the most are changes in the bones. This affects the astronaut’s ability to move and walk on his return to Earth.

Bone Specs

Bones have four basic functions. Namely, as a framework that supports soft tissues and body weight, stores important nutrients, produces blood, and protects internal organs.

It is a dynamic living tissue, responsive to disease and injury, and can repair itself by breaking down old bone and replacing it with new one over and over again.

The organic and inorganic components of bone together create a strong yet flexible skeletal structure.

In healthy individuals on Earth, bone forms at the same rate as it is broken down, so there is never any overall loss of bone mass. This process changes as a person ages or when entering microgravity for a long time.

NASA, quoted from site the official account, explains that the amount of weight an astronaut’s bones must support in space has been reduced to nearly zero. At the same time, many of the bones that aid movement are no longer subjected to the same stresses as they were on Earth.

The amount of calcium found in the blood of astronauts during spaceflight is much higher than when on Earth. This reflects a decrease in bone density or mass.

This decrease in density, known as osteoporosis, makes bones weak and less able to support the body’s weight and movement when it returns to Earth. This condition also puts astronauts at high risk for fractures.

This bone loss begins in the early days in space. The most severe losses occurred between the second and fifth moons in space, although the process continued throughout the time astronauts spent in microgravity.

Astronauts regain most of their bone mass within months of their return from space, but not all of it.

The exact mechanism that causes calcium loss in microgravity is unknown. Many scientists believe that microgravity causes bones to break down at a much faster rate than they were formed.

However, the exact trigger for this change has not been found. Researchers are currently conducting several studies, including hormone levels, diet, and exercise, to determine exactly what causes and what can prevent osteoporosis during spaceflight.

Apart from that, this phenomenon has become a law of nature. If this is applied to the DC Comics story, Clark Kent aka Superman, whose physical appearance looks no different from humans, should experience a decrease in bone and muscle mass as he stays on Earth, right?

[Gambas:Video CNN]

(can/lth)


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