Why doesn’t the atmosphere (air we breathe) just float off into space?
Some objects in space have atmospheres like Earth and Jupiter. Others like asteroids and the moon don’t have an atmosphere.
Why doesn’t earth atmosphere just drift away into space?
What am I missing about the concept of atmosphere?
In: Planetary Science
Air is affected by gravity, so bigger objects with more gravity tend to have atmospheres, while smaller ones do indeed tend to lose any.
It’s not quite black and white, though. Our Moon, for example, does have a tiny bit of ‘atmosphere’ but it’s just so thin that everyone says there isn’t one. I don’t think there’s an agreed on definition of how thick an atmosphere needs to be before you call it one
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