Keep in mind that Earth’s size in the infographic above is much larger compared to Mars. (Image: © ISS Crew Earth Observations Experiment and Image Science & Analysis Laboratory/Johnson Space Center.). Water molecules absorbed ultraviolet rays and spitted into hydrogen and oxygen. Even during a solar flare, which can greatly increase the damaging output of the sun, the atmosphere is able to block most of the harmful effects. The stratosphere is the second layer. The atmosphere helps to protect living organisms from genetic damage by solar ultraviolet radiation, solar wind and cosmic rays. For a biologist or paleontologist, the Earth's atmospheric composition is closely dependent on the appearance of the life and its evolution. As the name suggests, we are halfway up our atmosphere layers when we reach this part. For example, the large gravitational force of the giant planet Jupiter retains light gases such as hydrogen and helium that escape from objects with lower gravity. Content Guidelines 2. [3] Oxygen is used by most organisms for respiration; nitrogen is fixed by bacteria and lightning to produce ammonia used in the construction of nucleotides and amino acids; and carbon dioxide is used by plants, algae and cyanobacteria for photosynthesis. Because not much sun reaches the surface, this means that Venus has no significant seasonal temperature changes. [4] The net effect, taking the most important escape processes into account, is that an intrinsic magnetic field does not protect a planet from atmospheric escape and that for some magnetizations the presence of a magnetic field works to increase the escape rate.[5]. It lasted about 3.5 x 109 years ago. By iTutor.comT- 1-855-694-8886Email- info@iTutor.com 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Atmosphere&oldid=978856831, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from April 2016, All articles needing additional references, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from September 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 17 September 2020, at 09:50. Summary about Structure and Composition of Atmosphere. The ozone layer high in the Earth’s atmosphere blocks much of this radiation from reaching the surface. [7], The composition of Earth's atmosphere is largely governed by the by-products of the life that it sustains.
The top of the mesosphere, called the mesopause, is the coldest part of Earth's atmosphere, with temperatures averaging about minus 130 degrees F (minus 90 C). Moving upward from ground level, these layers are named the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere. This is the first and the lowest layer of Earth’s atmosphere. An atmosphere is more likely to be retained if the gravity it is subject to is high and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. The easiest way to think about the atmosphere above our planet is to imagine an invisible shield that protects our planet from all the bad stuff that floats around in the universe. The low temperatures and higher gravity of the Solar System's giant planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune—allow them more readily to retain gases with low molecular masses. © On planets where the primary heat source is solar radiation, excess heat in the tropics is transported to higher latitudes. [6] As a result, craters are rare on objects with atmospheres. Receive news and offers from our other brands? This process began after the advent of life on the earth. However, atmospheres are not uniform in temperature, so estimation of the atmospheric pressure at any particular altitude is more complex. It blends at about 1000 km or so above the surface of the earth. Earth’s Atmosphere: Origin and Structure of the Atmosphere! Plagiarism Prevention 4. All this explains the ecological significance of air. Before publishing your articles on this site, please read the following pages: 1. By Antonia Čirjak on May 1 2020 in Geography. The lowest layer is the troposphere, which extends from the surface to the bottom of the stratosphere.Three quarters of the atmosphere's mass resides within the troposphere, and is the layer within which the Earth's terrestrial weather develops. One of the most important benefits the atmosphere provides is maintaining the Earth’s …
Charged particles from space collide with atoms and molecules in the thermosphere, exciting them into higher states of energy. The exosphere begins variously from about 690 to 1,000 km above the surface, where it interacts with the planet's magnetosphere. A jacket for the planet The atmosphere of Earth is composed of nitrogen (about 78%), oxygen (about 21%), argon (about 0.9%), carbon dioxide (0.04%) and other gases in trace amounts. Atmospheric pressure decreases with increasing altitude due to the diminishing mass of gas above. The routinely accepted definition of "habitability" is that a planet is close enough to the star for liquid water to exist on its surface. And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com. This layer is hard to study. There is also less oxygen to breathe. Earth is the only planet in the solar system with an atmosphere that can sustain life. Nearly all of the water vapor and dust in the atmosphere are in this layer and that is why clouds are found here. The atmospheres of the planets Venus and Mars are primarily composed of carbon dioxide, with small quantities of nitrogen, argon, oxygen and traces of other gases. Without the physical protection of the atmosphere, the surface of the Earth would resemble that of the moon, pockmarked with impact craters. Earth is a great planet to live on because it has a wonderful atmosphere around it. This article is about an atmosphere of a celestial body. Oxygen is essential to human life as our … Earth's atmosphere consists of a number of layers that differ in properties such as composition, temperature and pressure. The planet, however, also has a runaway greenhouse effect on its surface. Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! Besides providing us with something to breathe, the atmosphere helps make life on Earth possible in several ways. The original atmospheres started with a rotating disc of gases that collapsed to form a series of spaced rings that condensed to form the planets. Jets and balloons don't go high enough, and satellites and space shuttles orbit too high.
The solar system may seem like a vast and empty place, but in reality it is full of debris and small particles leftover from planetary creation or collisions in the asteroid belt.
Vapor evaporates out of oceans, condenses as it cools and falls as rain, providing life-giving moisture to otherwise dry areas of the continents. Its atmosphere is heated to temperatures over 1,000 K, and is steadily escaping into space. This jacket of gases does a lot for us. This is the first and the lowest layer of Earth’s atmosphere. The gases such as nitrogen, hydrogen, hydrogen sulphide, carbon monoxide and water vapor existed in a reduced state. They passed over iron present in the mantle. The term stellar atmosphere describes the outer region of a star and typically includes the portion above the opaque photosphere. In the first stage, the earth by its gravitational force attracted gaseous constituents of the cosmic dust viz. Earth’s atmosphere is similar to a jacket for our planet. The troposphere starts at the Earth's surface and extends 8 to 14.5 kilometers high (5 … The Earth's atmosphere protects and sustains the planet's inhabitants by providing warmth and absorbing harmful solar rays. Prohibited Content 3. Each layer has its own properties, depending on how far you are from the surface of the planet. The origin of atmosphere is related to the origin of earth itself. Which Canadian Provinces Border The United States? Dense layers of molecular gases also absorb cosmic rays, gamma rays and x-rays, preventing these energetic particles from striking living things and causing mutations and other genetic damage. Large quantities of magma, saturated with dissolved gases moved towards the surface of the earth.
The scientific consensus is that greenhouse gases, which are increasing because of human activities, are trapping heat in the atmosphere. According to NASA, more than 100 tons of space debris strikes Earth every single day, mostly in the form of dust and tiny particles. NASA: Goddard Space Flight Center: Moon Facts, NASA: Goddard Institute for Space Studies: Taking the Measure of the Greenhouse Effect, NASA: Goddard Space Flight Center: Danger of Solar and Cosmic Radiation in Space, Environmental Protection Agency: UV Radiation, NASA: Jet Propulsion Laboratory: Near Earth Object Program. The exosphere, the highest layer, is extremely thin and is where the atmosphere merges into outer space. It keeps us warm, it gives us oxygen to breathe, and it’s where our weather happens. Thus, distant and cold Titan, Triton, and Pluto are able to retain their atmospheres despite their relatively low gravities. TOS 7. The atmosphere of Earth is divided into several different layers. Ways The Himalayas Influence Life In The Indian Subcontinent. It keeps us warm, it gives us oxygen to breathe, and it’s where our weather happens. Earth and Titan are known to have liquids at their surface and terrain on the planet suggests that Mars had liquid on its surface in the past. The earth was formed by the accretion of solid materials that condensed from the solar nebula. It is thought that Venus and Mars may have lost much of their water when, after being photodissociated into hydrogen and oxygen by solar ultraviolet radiation, the hydrogen escaped.
For such a model atmosphere, the pressure declines exponentially with increasing altitude. Somewhere it is around 100,000 km, but it can expand up to 190,000 km above sea level. The height at which the pressure from an atmosphere declines by a factor of e (an irrational number with a value of 2.71828...) is called the scale height and is denoted by H. For an atmosphere with a uniform temperature, the scale height is proportional to the temperature and inversely proportional to the product of the mean molecular mass of dry air and the local acceleration of gravity at that location. The ionosphere increases in thickness and moves closer to the Earth during daylight and rises at night allowing certain frequencies of radio communication over a greater range.
In the third and present day atmosphere oxygen production began to exceed oxygen consumption.