Science Reference

Earth's atmosphere

Earth's atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding the planet Earth and retained by the Earth's gravity.

It contains roughly 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen 0.97% argon and carbon dioxide 0.04% trace amounts of other gases, and water vapor.

This mixture of gases is commonly known as air.

The atmosphere protects life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet solar radiation and reducing temperature extremes between day and night. The atmosphere has no abrupt cut-off.

It slowly becomes thinner and fades away into space.

There is no definite boundary between the atmosphere and outer space.

Three-quarters of the atmosphere's mass is within 11 km of the planetary surface..

For more information about the topic Earth's atmosphere, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:

Note: This page refers to an article that is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the article Earth's atmosphere at Wikipedia.org. See the Wikipedia copyright page for more details.

Recommend this page on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:

|

Search ScienceDaily

Number of stories in archives: 138,553

Find with keyword(s):
 
Enter a keyword or phrase to search ScienceDaily's archives for related news topics,
the latest news stories, reference articles, science videos, images, and books.

Recommend ScienceDaily on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Other social bookmarking and sharing services:

|

Interested in ad-free access? If you'd like to read ScienceDaily without ads, let us know!
  more breaking science news

Social Networks


Follow ScienceDaily on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google:

Recommend ScienceDaily on Facebook, Twitter, and Google +1:

Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:

|

Breaking News

... from NewsDaily.com

  • more science news

In Other News ...

  • more top news

Free Subscriptions

... from ScienceDaily

Get the latest science news with our free email newsletters, updated daily and weekly. Or view hourly updated newsfeeds in your RSS reader:

Feedback

... we want to hear from you!

Tell us what you think of ScienceDaily -- we welcome both positive and negative comments. Have any problems using the site? Questions?

Post this page to your favorite social bookmarking site:
Include this item in your blog or web site:
Email this page's link to a friend or colleague: