Cristiano Ronaldo’s “gravity-defying” leap to head in a goal sent Juventus three points clear at the top of Serie A with a 2-1 victory at Sampdoria on Wednesday.

Ronaldo, 34, was an amazing 8ft 5in — 2.56metres — off the ground when he made contact with the header.

Some accounts suggested Ronaldo also hung in the air for 1.5 seconds before powering in Alex Sandro’s cross on the stroke of half-time — which proved to be the decisive goal.

To put his feat in perspective, basketball legend Michael Jordan’s longest hang time record — the time when he remained airborne the longest — is 0.92 seconds.

An average human’s hang time is somewhere around 0.53 seconds. In fact, the maximum hang time a normal human being can manage is one second — no more than that.

The gravitational force of Earth pulls one back down as soon as one’s feet leave the ground (despite one’s desire to soar through the air).

Earth pulls you back to the ground with an acceleration of 9.81 m/s2 (the universal value of g all over the planet).

Ronaldo rose above Sampdoria left-back Nicola Murru, who at 25 is nearly a decade his junior, and headed the ball into the far top-left corner of the net past Emil Audero.

Considering that he is 1.85 meters tall, Ronaldo jumped an incredible 71cm. He soared above Murru, who stands at 1.80 metres, so much so that his knees rose almost to the height of the defender’s head — an amazing display of athleticism.

Ronaldo remained suspended in the air like Pele during his overhead kick in the film Escape to Victory, before heading past Audero.

The man himself was apparently modest about his goal: “The goal was very nice, I’m happy to help the team with the three points. What I want is to help Juventus win new trophies.”

He was surprised by the numbers around his goal: “I didn’t know I was up (in the air) for so long.”

Sampdoria manager Claudio Ranieri was impressed by what he had seen from the Portuguese forward.

“Ronaldo did something that you see in the NBA (National Basketball Association), he was up in the air for an hour and a half!” said the former Leicester manager.

Former England striker Gary Lineker tweeted: “Ronaldo has just scored a far post header where his feet were higher than the crossbar.

“It’s only a slight exaggeration. Ridiculous leap.”

Fans were thrilled and believe the 34-year-old isn’t showing any signs of slowing down.

One wrote on Twitter: “Cristiano Ronaldo is the greatest aerial threat in the history of football.

“The sheer height he gains via his leap is unbelievable and then his hang time exceeds anyone else! What a sensational goal.”

Ronaldo though is a master of leaps, like a basketball player going up for a slam dunk.

He made a similar leap of 2.65 metres into the air to score for Portugal against Wales in the semi-final of Euro 2016.

“You cannot defend against a jump of that height,” former Welsh defender Chris Coleman had then said.

Ronaldo was 80 cm off the ground when he headed in that goal, and was airborne for 0.7 seconds.

The Juventus forward is 6 foot 1 inch but a 2011 study carried out at Chichester University found that his average leap is 78cm (2ft 5in), which is 7cm higher than the average NBA player.

So it’s no surprise that Ronaldo has scored more than 100 headers, many of them iconic ones, in his career.

One such was the powerful header for Real Madrid against his former club Manchester United in 2013, which left Sir Alex Ferguson stunned.

“Ronaldo’s kneecap was at the height of (Patrice) Evra’s head; even Lionel Messi can’t do that!” the legendary manager had gushed.