The way our atmosphere was created is a unique story. When our Earth first formed, our planet came its own atmosphere. Scientist believed that the original atmosphere consisted of mainly of Helium (He) and Hydrogen (H).
These were the first gasses on this planet but did not stay long. Scientist believe that these gases escaped Earth’s gravitational pull because of how light and fast they were moving. Earth was still a molten rock cooling down, but the temperatures this planet was at caused the light elements to move really fast and float off into space.
- The Troposphere:
- We live in the Troposphere
- It contains more than 75% of the atmosphere
- The Stratosphere:
- Most of the clouds and rain are in this layer
- It extends up to 48km above the earth!
- The ozone layer is between the Stratosphere and Mesosphere
- The Mesosphere:
- This layer extends to 80km above the Earth!
- The Thermosphere
- Here the air is very thin
- Over 99.99% of the atmosphere lies below this layer
- It is comprised of:
- The Ionosphere:
- Reflects radiowaves back to Earth so signals can be sent around the world
- The Exosphere:
- This layer begins at ~480km above the Earth and fades away into space
Citations
Leon, Nancy . "Scijinks." How did Earth's
atmosphere form?. 5 October, 2004. NASA.
17 May, 2013. <http://scijinks.nasa.gov/atmosphere-formation>.
Furgione, Laura K. . "NOAA." Layers of the
Atmosphere. 28 April, 2001. National
Weather Service. 17 May, 2013.
<http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/atmos/layers.htm>.
Johnson, Roberta. "Windows to the Universe."
Earth's Atmosphere. July 9, 1995.
National Earth Science Teachers Association. 17 May, 2013.
<http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/Atmosphere/overview.html>.
