The thin blue lines that seperates life and death.
What is the Atmosphere?
The atmosphere is layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth and retained by the Earth’s gravity.
What Gases Make Up Our Atmosphere?
According to NASA, there are four main gases that make up our atmosphere.
- Nitrogen – 78 percent
- Oxygen – 21 percent
- Argon – 0.93 percent
- Carbon Dioxide – 0.04 percent
- Trace amounts of neon, helium, krypton, hydrogen, and water vapor
This mixture of gases is commonly known as air.
Layers of the Atmosphere:
The Troposphere is the layer closest to the Earth’s surface. Ranging from about 4 to 12 miles up, clouds are formed in this layer.
The Stratosphere is the second layer that starts at about 12 miles up and ends at 31 miles high. The air here is about a thousand times thinner than at sea level, and jet aircrafts and weather balloons fly in this layer.
The Mesosphere starts at 31 miles high and extends to 53 miles high. The top of this layer is called the mesopause, it is the coldest part of Earth’s atmosphere reaching an average of minus 130 degrees fahrenheit. This layer is hard to study, but scientist know that meteors burn up in this layer.
The Thermosphere extends from 56 miles to between 310 and 620 miles. temperatures can get up to 2,700 degrees fahrenheit. This layer is where the International Space Station orbits the Earth. This is also the layer where we see the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis.
The final layer is the Exosphere where we see the dispersed particles of hydrogen and helium and it begins to turn to outer space.
A little audio interview with an associate, Alan Guillen, talks about the atmosphere below!
It goes into more depth about the topics above and it is only my first audio interview so don’t be too harsh on me! š Thank you!
#1Earth
NAShTYEarth 