InterviewSolution
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InterviewSolution
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18. How does Earth retain its atmosphere? |
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Answer» For a planet to retain its atmosphere, the planet must be heavy enough to hold the molecules making up the atmosphere down. It means that it needs to have adequate gravitational attraction acting on the molecules so that they don’t escape away. You may ask why the molecules even try to escape? That’s mainly because the Sun heats them up, increasing their kinetic energy. They start moving around more and more rapidly as the temperature goes up, creating a pressure which opposes the gravity. This is pretty much a battle between gravity and heat. Now let’s look at under which circumstances one beats the other. |
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