Atmosphere
What is the atmosphere made of?
The atmosphere is made of water vapor, 78 % nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.9% argon, and 0.03% carbon dioxide. Is there variation and layers in the atmosphere? With increasing altitude the air in the atmosphere gets thinner. There are 6 layers in the atmosphere, the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, exosphere, and the ionosphere. The troposphere is the lowest layer of our atmosphere , the stratosphere is 7-30 miles above earth's surface. Th exosphere is the region beyond the thermosphere but overlaps all the layers of the atmosphere. What is the temperature range? Troposphere: 62 degrees to -60 degrees Stratosphere: 5 degrees to -76 degrees Mesosphere: 5 degrees to -184 degrees How Big is the Atmosphere? The Earth's atmosphere is about 300 miles (480 km) thick, most of it is within 10 miles (16 km) of the surface of the Earth. Because the atmosphere doesn't exactly end so the atmosphere just gets thinner and thinner until it merges with outer space. How old is the Atmosphere? Earth is believed to be formed 5 billion years ago so in the first 500 million years a dense atmosphere was created by vapors and gases from the planets interior. The gases that are thought to come out of the earths atmosphere is hydrogen, water vapor, methane, and carbon dioxide. |