News tagged with atmosphere
Hubble sees a spiral within a spiral
(Phys.org) -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the spiral galaxy known as ESO 498-G5. One interesting feature of this galaxy is that its spiral arms wind all the way into the center, so ...
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Geological record shows air up there came from below
(Phys.org) -- The influence of the ground beneath us on the air around us could be greater than scientists had previously thought, according to new research that links the long-ago proliferation of oxygen ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 23, 2012 |
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Fungi shifted plant balance of power
Cooperating with fungi didn't just help the earliest plants spread across a barren, rocky landscape; it also played a decisive role in the rise of more complex plants with roots and leaves that make up most ...
May 24, 2012 |
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Toxic mercury, accumulating in the Arctic, springs from a hidden source
(Phys.org) -- Environmental scientists at Harvard have discovered that the Arctic accumulation of mercury, a toxic element, is caused by both atmospheric forces and the flow of circumpolar rivers that carry ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 21, 2012 |
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Environmental group measures methane seeps in the Arctic
(Phys.org) -- A team of researchers, led by Katey Walter Anthony, of the University of Alaska, has been studying and mapping so-called seeps, holes in lake ice near the edges of glaciers where methane is bubbling ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 21, 2012 |
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Is it ripe? Carbon nanotube-based ethylene sensor establishes fruit ripeness
(Phys.org) -- The term ethylene (ethene) generally brings to mind polyethylene plastics, not fruit. However, ethylene is more than just a feedstock for chemical industry, it is also the smallest plant hormone, ...
Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry
May 19, 2012 |
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New satellite movie chases post-Tropical Storm Alberto in Atlantic
On May 23, 2012, the remnants of post-tropical storm Alberto were chasing a frontal system over the Atlantic Ocean, several hundred miles east of the U.S. East coast. A new NASA animation of imagery from NOAA's GOES-15 satellite ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 23, 2012 |
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USDA links gene flow between weedy and domesticated rice to rising carbon dioxide levels
(Phys.org) -- New research at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirms that rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide facilitate the flow of genes from wild or weedy rice plants to domesticated ...
May 24, 2012 |
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Creating action-inspiring tornado warnings
One year ago this week, 158 people died when a tornado with winds greater than 200 mph struck Joplin, Mo. Even though the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued tornado warnings and activated ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 22, 2012 |
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NASA Goddard delivers magnetometers for next mission to Mars
Magnetometers built by scientists and engineers at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. for NASA's Mars Atmosphere And Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) mission have been delivered to the University ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
May 21, 2012 |
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Ultra-cool companion helps reveal giant planets
(Phys.org) -- An international team of astronomers led by David Pinfield of the University of Hertfordshire has found a brown dwarf that is more than 99% hydrogen and helium. Described as ultra-cool, it has ...
May 10, 2012 |
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Black carbon, tropospheric ozone most likely driving Earth's tropical belt expansion
Black carbon aerosols and tropospheric ozone, both manmade pollutants emitted predominantly in the Northern Hemisphere's low- to mid-latitudes, are most likely pushing the boundary of the tropics further polew ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
May 16, 2012 |
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Subaru telescope pioneers the use of adaptive optics for optical observations
A research team from the University of Tokyo/Kavli IPMU, Ehime University, and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) has succeeded in conducting the first, full-scale scientific observationswith ...
May 25, 2012 |
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Ancient plant-fungal partnerships reveal how the world became green
Prehistoric plants grown in state-of-the-art growth chambers recreating environmental conditions from more than 400 million years ago have shown scientists from the University of Sheffield how soil dwelling fungi played a ...
May 15, 2012 |
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Simulations unravel mysteries of 2009 Jupiter impact
(PhysOrg.com) -- During July of 1994, both amateur and professional astronomers were captivated as comet Shoemaker/Levy 9 broke apart and slammed into the atmosphere of Jupiter. While these types of impacts ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Mar 30, 2012 |
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Atmosphere
An atmosphere (from Greek ατμός - atmos, 'vapor' + σφαίρα - sphaira, 'sphere') is a layer of gases that may surround a material body of sufficient mass, by the gravity of the body, and are retained for a longer duration if gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low. Some planets consist mainly of various gases, but only their outer layer is their atmosphere (see gas giants).
The term stellar atmosphere describes the outer region of a star, and typically includes the portion starting from the opaque photosphere outwards. Relatively low-temperature stars may form compound molecules in their outer atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere, which contains oxygen used by most organisms for respiration and carbon dioxide used by plants, algae and cyanobacteria for photosynthesis, also protects living organisms from genetic damage by solar ultraviolet radiation. Its current composition is the product of billions of years of biochemical modification of the paleoatmosphere by living organisms.
For more information about Atmosphere, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
