The atmosphere is essentially all of the stuff that exists between the ground and outer space.
Air, clouds, winds, gasses, the ozone layer, dust… all of these things help to keep temperatures stable, shield us from the sun’s dangerous radiation, allow food to grow, create weather patterns, and more.
According to NASA, the atmosphere is mostly Nitrogen (78%), followed by Oxygen (21%), Argon (0.93%), Carbon Dioxide (0.04%), and other trace gasses.
It’s broken into multiple zones, each with different names.
We live in the troposphere, which extends to 16 kilometres (9.9 miles) above sea level at the equator.
Interestingly, the atmosphere is not a perfect circle. The troposphere only extends 8 kilometres (4.9 miles) above sea level at the north and south poles.
Past the troposphere, you’ll find the stratosphere—the domain of weather balloons—which reaches all the way out to 50 kilometres (31.1 miles).
Keep going and you’ll reach the mesophere.
This is where meteors or “shooting stars” often burn up and create the spectacular lights you see streaking across the night sky. It ends at around 85 kilometres (52.8 miles) out.
Beyond the mesophere, you reach the thermosphere. Its in this zone where we typically say that “outer space” begins.
While there isn’t a concise border with “outer space” on one side and everything else on the other, most scientists consider the Kármán Line the official border.
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