Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Another scientific consensus bites the dust

5×10^25 is hardly significant. It is only couple of kilogram or so, depending on the molecule.

6.0221415×10^23 is the famed Avogadro's number.

5×10^25 is only about 100 times as much.

Consider nitrogen, the most common gas in the atmosphere.

Avogadro's number of nitrogen molecules weighs 28 grams. Multiply by 100 and you get 2800 grams, or 2.8 kilograms.

This is really not very much for a planet the size of Earth to lose each second.

Multiply this by 86400 seconds per day, and the result is only about 250 (metric) tons per day.

The mass of the Earth's atmosphere is about 5×10^15 tons. At 250 metric tons per second, the atmosphere will last some 54 billion years, far longer than the Sun's expected lifetime. Less than 10% will be lost by the time the Sun burns out.

In short, forget it.

David F Mayer

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