Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to A pleasant reply, in which I do not use the word MORON (aside from the title)

re: A pleasant reply,
Johannes — (archived)

I was ranting there to raise the awareness to the idea (again) because you guys do not seem to understand my viewpoint.

I'll try to be more rational and concise with this post.

When I was a young adult I read about the temperature changes that occurred in the "temperate zones" of the world, the information was that the change between the night and day temperature was never more than 5 Celsius degrees.

I look at the temperature variation today and it is 11 degrees Celsius in this area.

I wonder why this would be so.

I have read about the condition of atmospheres or their lack there of, on the planet Mars and on the Earth's moon.

It occurs to me that the extreme temperature fluctuation on Mars and moon is due to the very low density of the atmosphere.

Now I suspect that IF the atmospheric density decreases around this planet then this night/day temperature fluctuation becomes greater. In other words instead of having a low and high temperature difference of only 5 degrees in a 24 hour period we can see a low/high temperature difference of 10 degrees or more.

The question then occurs, what can cause such a difference in the temperature variation.
According to my understanding of physics if a quantity of gas is heated, it expands and if it is allowed to do so, then in the density of the gas decreases.

If the density of the Earth's atmosphere decreases then the temperature fluctuations become more pronounced.

The question then is, what events can cause the density of the atmosphere to decrease.

Certainly the sun is the major source of heat on the planet, it could be giving out more energy than before, but that has not been detected as happening.

Certainly the air could become too hot to fly airplanes in and it could be because we are "trapping" heat from the sun by increasing the amount of "greenhouse gasses" in the atmosphere, but the evidence for that is not conclusive.

The third reason could be that the atmosphere is decreasing in density because it is escaping into space.
If the air density is decreasing due to this reason then the sun's energy will get through the atmosphere much easier and heat the water of the oceans causing global changes in weather patterns.

Why would the air escape into space?

Since you will not allow me to explain my reasoning on that subject perhaps you can then give us yours.

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (74 posts)