Atmosphere
hideAn atmosphere (from Greek ατμός - atmos, 'vapor' + σφαίρα - sphaira, 'sphere') is a layer of gases that may surround a material body of sufficient mass, by the gravity of the body, and are retained for a longer duration if gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low. Some planets consist mainly of various gases, but only their outer layer is their atmosphere (see gas giants).
The term stellar atmosphere describes the outer region of a star, and typically includes the portion starting from the opaque photosphere outwards. Relatively low-temperature stars may form compound molecules in their outer atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere, which contains oxygen used by most organisms for respiration and carbon dioxide used by plants, algae and cyanobacteria for photosynthesis, also protects living organisms from genetic damage by solar ultraviolet radiation. Its current composition is the product of billions of years of biochemical modification of the paleoatmosphere by living organisms.
For more information about Atmosphere, read the full article at
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News tagged with atmosphere
Obama looking at cooling air to fight warming
Apr 08, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Tinkering with Earth's climate to chill runaway global warming - a radical idea once dismissed out of hand - is being discussed by the White House as a potential emergency option, the president's ...
Ice-free Arctic Ocean possible in 30 years, not 90 as previously estimated
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Apr 02, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A nearly ice-free Arctic Ocean in the summer may happen three times sooner than scientists have estimated. New research says the Arctic might lose most of its ice cover in summer in as few ...
Scientists propose new hypothesis on the origin of life
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 04, 2009 |
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The Miller-Urey experiment, conducted by chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey in 1953, is the classic experiment on the origin of life. It established that the early Earth atmosphere, as they pictured it, ...
Cloudy with a chance of pebble showers: Simulation suggests rocky exoplanet has bizarre atmosphere
Sep 29, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- So accustomed are we to the sunshine, rain, fog and snow of our home planet that we find it next to impossible to imagine a different atmosphere and other forms of precipitation.
Potent greenhouse gas more prevalent in atmosphere than previously assumed
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 23, 2008 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A powerful greenhouse gas is at least four times more prevalent in the atmosphere than previously estimated, according to a team of researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC ...
New Images Indicate Object Hits Jupiter
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jul 21, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have found evidence that another object has bombarded Jupiter, exactly 15 years after the first impacts by the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.
Scientists discover surprise in Earth's upper atmosphere
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Sep 10, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- UCLA atmospheric scientists have discovered a previously unknown basic mode of energy transfer from the solar wind to the Earth's magnetosphere. The research, federally funded by the National ...
Living with a Star
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Aug 20, 2008 |
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What if you woke up one morning and found your whole planet had been swallowed by the atmosphere of a star?
Did a nickel famine trigger the 'Great Oxidation Event'?
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Apr 08, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The Earth's original atmosphere held very little oxygen. This began to change around 2.4 billion years ago when oxygen levels increased dramatically during what scientists call the "Great ...
Astronomers Detect Sodium Gas Ejected by Lunar Impact
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Oct 12, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Boston University astronomers announced today observations of a cloud of sodium gas ejected from the Moon’s surface as a result of the NASA impact experiment that was part of its Lunar Reconnaissance ...
The rise of oxygen caused Earth's earliest ice age
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 07, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Geologists may have uncovered the answer to an age-old question - an ice-age-old question, that is. It appears that Earth's earliest ice ages may have been due to the rise of oxygen in Earth's ...
Carbon Atmosphere Discovered on Neutron Star
Nov 04, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Evidence for a thin veil of carbon has been found on the neutron star in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant. This discovery, made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, resolves a ten-year ...
A bubbling ball of gas (w/ Video)
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Nov 11, 2009 |
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The Sun is a bubbling mass. Packages of gas rise and sink, lending the sun its grainy surface structure, its granulation. Dark spots appear and disappear, clouds of matter dart up - and behind the whole thing ...
Mankind using Earth's resources at alarming rate
Nov 24, 2009 |
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Humanity would need five Earths to produce the resources needed if everyone lived as profligately as Americans, according to a report issued Tuesday.
Lightning’s Mirror Image, Only Much Bigger (w/ Video)
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Aug 23, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- With a very lucky shot, scientists have captured a one-second image and the electrical fingerprint of huge lightning that flowed 40 miles upward from the top of a storm.
