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One classical thermal escape mechanism is Jeans escape, [1] named after British astronomer Sir James Jeans, who first described this process of atmospheric loss. [2] In a quantity of gas, the average velocity of any one molecule is measured by the gas's temperature, but the velocities of individual molecules change as they collide with one another, gaining and losing kinetic energy.
Hydrodynamic escape is a mass fractionating process since all isotopes are dragged by protons with the same force but heavy isotopes are more gravitationally bound compared to light ones. [11] Therefore, hydrogen preferentially drags lighter isotopes to space, leaving the residual atmosphere enriched in heavier isotopes. [ 12 ]
The escape of any atmospheric gas can be diffusion-limited, but only diffusion-limited escape of hydrogen has been observed in our solar system, on Earth, Mars, Venus and Titan. [1] Diffusion-limited hydrogen escape was likely important for the rise of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere ( the Great Oxidation Event ) and can be used to estimate the ...
A University of Colorado, Boulder team has discovered that Mars has an atmospheric "escape route" which may have helped hydrogen drift into space at much faster rates. Mars Express data shows that ...
The escape of hydrogen from the Earth into space must have oxidized the Earth because the process of hydrogen loss is chemical oxidation. [74] This process of hydrogen escape required the generation of methane by methanogens, so that methanogens actually helped create the conditions necessary for the oxidation of the atmosphere. [41]
Atmospheric escape is largely a thermal process. The atmosphere a body can retain therefore varies from the warmer inner Solar System, to the cooler outer regions. Different bodies in different Solar System regions provide analogous or contrasting examples.
Atmospheric entry (sometimes listed as V impact or V entry) is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. Atmospheric entry may be uncontrolled entry, as in the entry of astronomical objects , space debris , or bolides .
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