Hey Everyone,
I may be unfair picking all your brains with questions, but I've been reading posts for some time and I see a well of smarts I can't resist tapping!

IF...stick with me on this hypothetical future...at some point we Earthlings managed to travel fast enough to colonize another exoplanet that had an atmosphere, magnetic field, tectonic plates, etc., iow, all the necessities in order to sustain carbon based life forms as ourselves.
BUT, the exoplanet had a lower mass (yet enough mass to hold the atmosphere). Therefore, this planet has a lower gravity than Earth's gravity...

a-Would it be difficult for the Earth 'aliens' to come back to Earth after any length of time due to loss of bone density issues?

b-Would the Earth 'aliens' always have the ability to jump further and higher on the above planet in question because of the lower gravity, or would the hypogravity effect decrease over time?

I know, very theoretical! I won't even go into HOW we're going to get to this planet that hasn't been discovered yet. But I can't stop wondering about it.

Thanks for indulging me!

Sanbeko

Welcome aboard!

First of all, "Earthlings has such negative connotations. I prefer Terrans or Tellurians.
Short answer - We don't know...yet! We haven't been in space long enough to know the long term effects of low gravity.
Over many generations, super strength would probably diminish (use it or lose it), but could probably be be rebuilt with exercise.

__________________
Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

They could come back, but the greater the ratio of their Gs, the more difficult it would be.

The earlier settlers would be able to overcome the lesser gravity better.

__________________
I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol. A human.

Whoever says "perception is reality" is daft. It's merely an abstraction, and often not a very good one.

Welcome, Sanbeko.

There are too many unknown variables to answer that question... one of them being just what the gravity of such a world would be. If it's a planet with no or small moons, a large moon, or is itself a moon orbiting a larger planet, can all make a difference as to how much the "minimum" gravity to hold a breatheable atmosphere would be. Of course, the composition of that atmosphere also makes a huge difference. And, as pointed out by Kaptain K, we have no experience in low gravity for more than a few days.

__________________
"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort