I’m “listening,†Then is it forgetfullness? Or what did you mean by "finally" on the same page about loss of atmosphere?
...and I’m glad that no one disagrees with the fact that the atmosphere of a planet can disappear or evaporate into space. "evaporate" implies a phase change from liquid to gas. Wrong word.
Could you point me to that study? Not really. Here is a little snippet of exploration history. Look the details up yourself.In the late 1950s, rocket flights probed a region above the mesosphere the thermosphere--where temperature again begins to rise with altitude. The mesopause, at an altitude of about 80 km, separates the mesosphere from this outermost layer of the Earth's atmosphere. Heating of the thermosphere is due to absorption of highly energetic solar radiation by the small amount of residual molecular oxygen still present, and temperatures can rise to 2,000deg. Celsius. At these high altitudes, the residual atmospheric gases do in fact become sorted into strata according to molecular mass, as de Bort had earlier conjectured for the stratosphere. Since spacecraft in low Earth orbit actually pass through the outer thermosphere, direct sampling of chemical species there has been used extensively to develop an understanding of thermospheric properties. Explorer-17, launched in 1963, was the first satellite to return quantitative measurements of gaseous stratification in the thermosphere. However, the mesosphere and lower layers cannot be probed directly in this way--global observations from space require remote sensing from a spacecraft at an altitude well above the mesopause. The formidable technological challenges of atmospheric remote sensing, many of which are only now being overcome, have delayed detailed study of the stratosphere and mesosphere by comparison with thermospheric research advances.
Could you elaborate on your understanding of heat or kinetic energy of the molecules in the upper atmosphere? You seem to indicate that the vibration or back and forth motion of molecules constitutes heat even in the very thin thermosphere.
Would you consider the linear motion of molecules as heat? Dunno. Any physics majors in the crowd?
Since the “hot†molecules are not any lighter than the “cold†molecules, why do the “hot†molecules stay in the upper atmosphere? Silly question. Why is it that there are only wet fish in the ocean? Why do the wet ones stay there? (and where do the dry ones go?)
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- A snippet for Johannes
- re:Interesting, Thank you alcaray