Questions tagged [atmosphere]
Questions regarding an envelope of gasses surrounding a celestial body held in place by the body's gravity.
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Why is the Aeolus space laser losing power so quickly?
The BBC News article Aeolus: Wind-mapping space laser is losing power says that
Europe's Aeolus satellite was launched last year to gather data to improve weather forecasts, and its observations have ...
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How small must an asteroid be to burn entirely in the martian atmosphere?
The Martian atmosphere is thinner and the magnetic field isn't present. I wonder how many asteroids fall and if at least the small ones can burn in the atmosphere before reaching the soil. Thanks in ...
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Would a mars base need to expel excess heat?
I've read that on Mars you lose 30% of your heat through convection and 70% through black body radiation. (The much lower amount from convection due to the tenous atmosphere vs. Earth.) http://www....
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Why not simulate certain regions of the atmosphere of Venus?
Many people would like to know if any form of life could survive anywhere in the atmosphere of Venus.
Researchers have simulated conditions on Mars and found that after a month some cyanobacteria ...
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What is the density of the earth's atmosphere at an altitude of four hundred kilometers?
What is the density of the earth's atmosphere at an altitude of four hundred kilometers? I want to use it to calculate the drag on something in orbit near the ISS.
The Jacchia Reference Atmosphere is ...
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How could a hot lander enter Titan's atmosphere without setting its hydrocarbons ablaze?
Whenever a lander enters an atmosphere, it generates a lot of friction and that heats up the heat shield. On Earth we have seen videos of spacecraft with red-hot shields.
On Saturn's moon Titan, ...
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Why is there a black donut in Perseverance's SkyCam? Is it always used to block the Sun? (sky cameras on Earth don't) How does it work?
At mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/raw-images I found Mars Perseverance Sol 258: SkyCam Camera which shows a sky camera (180° FOV fisheye view of the sky) image. I've included it below along with ...
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Why does Earth's atmospheric density have a big "knee" around 100 km? Is there a good analytical approximation?
I've used a quick very rough approximation of the drop of atmospheric density with altitude in this answer and in this answer by using a single exponential and scale height parameter, but that's not ...
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What is the barometric formula for a gas giant?
The barometric formula describes the atmospheric pressure depending on height and a host of other things. This formula assumes a constant gravitational acceleration over the whole height of the gas ...
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What materials are naturally released into space from earth?
I am wondering what kinds of materials that are released by Earth into space due to natural processes.
If possible, what are their approximate rates in kg per day or year?
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How does the sunlight affect the height of the atmosphere?
I was reading this question about how high a Mars balloon could go in the mars atmosphere.
How much would the sunlight affect how high the atmosphere reaches? Is the atmosphere on Earth elongated on ...
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Can we detect atmosphere on exoplanets?
We are finding new planets in other solar systems all the time. Some of them are in a habitable zone of their sun. Are we able to detect the atmosphere of any exoplanet? Is there any atmospheric ...
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How long could an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere last on the Moon?
So, if the Moon had an atmosphere composed of oxygen and nitrogen, how long might it last before it all boiled off into space due to the low gravity of the Moon?
Or better yet, a krypton or xenon ...
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Depressurization of a habitat on Mars
Wikipedia lists the atmospheric pressure of Mars to be about 600 pascals, or just 0.6% of Earth's atmosphere. I'm wondering, can anyone shed any light on what that means, in practical terms?
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How were Mars' zero elevation datum defined? What are their shapes?
Discussions on Boiling ponds and pools on Mars? led me to Wikipedia's Mars; Geography and naming of surface features which says:
Because Mars has no oceans and hence no "sea level", a zero-...
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How much does pressure on Mars change with weather?
A great answer about the Mars atmosphere and water triple point shows there is a region on Mars where clean liquid water slightly above 0°C can exist on the surface. I still wonder, though, how ...
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Is there a profile of atmospheric pressure and gravity of Uranus?
One of the intriguing facts about Uranus is that somewhere within the gravity is about 0.9g. Now, if one wants to daydream about living on Uranus in slightly chilly balloons, it would be interesting ...
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Comparison of Titan to Europa
Why does Titan have an atmosphere denser than that of the Earth?
And why does Europa not have even a fraction of Titans atmosphere given that it is not that small as compared to Titan?
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How can a hefty sand storm happen in a thin atmosphere like Martian?
As perceived, sand storms on Mars are quite hefty. But how is that possible in such a thin atmosphere like Martian?
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On what calculations is Robert Zubrin's assertion that Mars could be warmed by 10 ⁰ C in 50 years with fluorocarbon gases based?
In this answer to the question "What would the full hypothetical Mars terraforming roadmap look like ?" there's a link to the article "Zubrin on Terraforming Mars" in Universe ...
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Can plants thrive without atmospheric nitrogen?
One of deficit resources on Mars is nitrogen. There's a plenty of carbon dioxide, and a modest amount of water. There's a deficit of nitrogen, but AFAIK plants use nitrogen in compounds found in soil, ...
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Re-entry Dynamics
I've been reading around a lot and I haven't been able to find any clear explanations. Maybe I'm a bit confused or maybe I am just looking in the wrong places.
My question is, what are some basic ...
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What are the calculations for the time it would take to create a minus 50⁰ C liquid CO2 ocean on Venus by shielding it totally from the Sun?
Cooling down Venus will probably be by far the most efficient method to start terraforming the planet because then you wouldn't have to deal with the high temperatures and pressures at its surface.
I'...
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What would be the challenges for a 50 km long tether to the surface of Venus to get recurrent samples from there?
Basalt fiber would be an excellent material for a tether in the atmosphere of Venus because it could withstand both the acidity and the high temperature near the surface there.
From this answer about ...
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How does InSight measure wind speed?
According to this answer to How can I find a daily record of the temperature on Mars? the weather at the InSight lander can now be seen online at https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/weather/ This includes ...
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Where do ice giants contain ice?
There is a class of planets called ice giants. Let's talk about Neptune. The top layer is atmosphere, consisting of hydrogen and helium. The amount of these gases is about 10% but they produce high ...
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Non-vacuum ion propulsion
Are there any ion thrusters which could conceivably provide thrust inside the atmosphere?
Not that they'd have enough thrust to take off under their own power, of course; I'm just wondering whether ...
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Any additional information required for colonising these rocky solar system bodies?
I am doing some research into the nearby rocky bodies Mars, Venus and the Moon with reference to human colonisation.
Are there any specific pieces of information that would be useful to know about ...
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What is the problem with pressure?
Among other reasons, the high pressure of Venus and the gas giants atmospheres are often stated as one of the major problems for an unmanned lander. They say the pressure will "crush" the probe. Why ...
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What would Venus look like without acid clouds?
Despite its unpleasant surface conditions, Venus is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful worlds in the solar system when viewed from space. It’s huge clouds of sulphuric acid make the planet ...
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With a 10% increase in Earth's mass, would the Karman line move up or down, and by how much?
This is an exercise to better understand the basic physics and math behind scale height and the Karman line. It was inspired by this answer to Why is FAI considering lowering the Karman Line to 80km? (...
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Could Mars ocean still be there?
So it’s pretty much agreed that Mars was once a wet planet, and most of the water was lost to space. However, I am unable to see why that is necessarily the case primarily for the same reason that ...
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What would be the best recipe for a breathable atmosphere in a base on the Moon?
I was reading Why does the ISS atmosphere contain nitrogen, and I wondered if some of the explanations there would also apply to a base on the Moon. There are considerations on the Moon that don't ...
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How would critical refractivity of radio waves on Venus be overcome?
Rereading my answer here and in particular, rereading the article Optical and Radio Refraction on Venus (Stratton, 1968) it is my understanding that there is significant refraction of radio waves, as ...
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Does exploration of Venus' atmosphere now require any planetary protection protocols?
This answer quotes Marc Rayman's August 21, 2018 Dawn Journal entry:
Not all solar system bodies need such protection. The Moon, Mercury and Venus, for example, have not been of interest for ...
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Monoatomic species at orbital altitudes
Besides monoatomic oxygen, what other monoatomic or chemically reactive atmospheric or environmental constituents, if any, are present at orbital altitudes that aren't present at lower altitudes, and ...
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Could and should not the search for the location(s) of the Martian methane spikes become the main scientific objective for the Curiosity rover?
In Nature Geoscience's article Independent confirmation of a methane spike on Mars and a source region east of Gale Crater is announced that the reported methane spike on sol 305 by the Tunable Laser ...
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Convective heat transfer on rocket during ascent
I'm looking for a way to (very) roughly estimate the convective heat transfer onto a rocket hull during atmospheric ascent (ideally through different planetary atmospheres). While I'm comfortable with ...
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Why wasn't the high-speed rotation regime for Ingenuity tested on Earth?
On the NASA website, it says that the propeller on Ingenuity will need to spin faster than what has been done before during all of the previous tests to accommodate for the rarefied atmosphere during ...
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Exactly how "Ferrari-like" was GOCE? Was its drag coefficient as low as the car's?
This comment mentions:
This relation between drag and mass is taken to a relative (for satellites) extreme in GOCE which I think needed to be close to Earth to accurately sense the changes in gravity,...
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How does an atmospheric probe measure temperature during descent?
I heard that the Galileo spacecraft sent Galileo Probe into Jupiter, and it reported temperatures reaching 153 degrees Celsius.
The question is, when you send a probe crashing into a planet that has ...
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Is there likely to be life in Venus's upper atmosphere?
From what I understand, Venus's upper atmosphere is much more habitable than its surface, with a temperature and pressure that humans could tolerate. However, lack of oxygen and the presence of ...
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How is atmospheric temperature measured from a satellite?
How does an Earth observing satellite measure the temperature of the atmosphere?
Can they measure temperature at multiple altitudes, or measure the temperature of clouds?
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How long would a blimp last in Venusian atmosphere at an altitude of 65 km?
It would be the same blimp on Earth, except with some modifications like anti-corrosion coating. The blimp will use helium as the gas to keep it aloft. Would it last long enough to be useful?
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What effects did the different air pressure and air composition in certain spacecraft have on astronauts?
The Mercury and Gemini spacecraft, and in space the Apollo spacecraft, didn't pressurize their cockpits to 1 atm with Earth-like atmospheric composition; instead, they used pure oxygen at much lower ...
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Will SpaceX vehicles orbit Mars before they enter the atmosphere?
When SpaceX starts sending vehicles to Mars, how will they handle landing on Mars?
Will the Starship (Upper Stage, transit vehicle) slow down enough to capture into orbit of Mars before entering the ...
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Launching sounding rockets from the magnetic equator (ISRO's Thumba)
The Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station is operated by ISRO for launching sounding rockets because magnetic equator passes through it. Equator gives additional velocity, But what advantage ...
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Could we achieve aerodynamic and aerostatic lift on the Moon if it had an atmosphere of xenon?
The Moon is not capable of keeping an Earth like atmosphere, nor is it practical to keep satellites in lunar orbit. Which means all transportation and communication would need to be ground based. No ...
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Could the Moon be terraformed by outgassing its oxygen?
The majority of the Moon's mass is oxygen. With energy it could chemically be liberated from its silicon et cetera compounds and be turned into oxygen gas. Given its low gravity, lack of magnetosphere ...
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First sounding rocket to reach the mesosphere?
The mesosphere (the part of the atmosphere above the stratosphere where temperatures increase with altitude) is generally above the altitude reachable by balloon. It begins somewhere around 50 km.
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