Facts about Atmosphere
Heat (from the still-molten crust and the Sun) dissipated this atmosphere.
The history of the Earth's atmosphere prior to one billion years ago is poorly understood, but one plausible sequence of events is given below.
The exosphere (from the Greek word exo = out or outside) is the uppermost layer of the atmosphere.
Oxygenation of the atmosphere is thought to have led to mass extinctions of species.
The magnetosphere, which extends well beyond the atmosphere, protects the Earth from the damaging rain of charged particles carried by the solar wind.
The atmosphere in this layer is sufficiently rarified for satellites to orbit the Earth, although they still receive some atmospheric drag.
At first, the oxygen combined with various elements (such as iron), but eventually oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere.
Based on these properties, the atmosphere may be regarded as having different layers or zones.
The Earth's atmosphere plays a vital role in sustaining life on this planet.
The Earth's atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding our planet and retained by the Earth's gravity.
Above-ground public transport in Rome is made up of a bus and tram network.
One area of concern, though, is that human activities such as fuel burning and industrial production have been releasing pollutants into the atmosphere.
Based on its properties, the atmosphere is divided into several layers, but it has no abrupt, outermost boundary.
The modern atmosphere is sometimes referred to as Earth's "third atmosphere," to distinguish its chemical composition from two notably different earlier compositions.
It is also the layer that contains all of our weather. To avoid turbulence and bad weather, larger planes will sometimes fly in the upper boundary of the Troposphere, called the Tropopause, or even into the lower boundary of the next layer, called the Stratosphere.Jul 1, 2015
As the mesosphere extends upward above the stratosphere, temperatures decrease. The coldest parts of our atmosphere are located in this layer and can reach –90°C. In the forth layer from Earth's surface, the thermosphere, the air is thin, meaning that there are far fewer air molecules.
Earth's atmosphere is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.9% argon, and 0.03% carbon dioxide with very small percentages of other elements. Our atmosphere also contains water vapor. In addition, Earth's atmosphere contains traces of dust particles, pollen, plant grains and other solid particles.
When Earth formed 4.6 billion years ago from a hot mix of gases and solids, it had almost no atmosphere. The surface was molten. As Earth cooled, an atmosphere formed mainly from gases spewed from volcanoes. It included hydrogen sulfide, methane, and ten to 200 times as much carbon dioxide as today's atmosphere.
These molecules of gas moved so fast they escaped Earth's gravity and eventually all drifted off into space. Earth's original atmosphere was probably just hydrogen and helium, because these were the main gases in the dusty, gassy disk around the Sun from which the planets formed.
As the mesosphere extends upward above the stratosphere, temperatures decrease. The coldest parts of our atmosphere are located in this layer and can reach –90°C. In the forth layer from Earth's surface, the thermosphere, the air is thin, meaning that there are far fewer air molecules.
When Pluto is closer to the Sun in its orbit, the warmth from the Sun heats up the frozen ices of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide on Pluto's surface. These ices vaporize and form a temporary atmosphere. When Pluto moves farther from the Sun, the atmosphere freezes and falls back onto Pluto's surface.