Tag: atmosphere

The Reason the Earth Becomes Colder When Closest to the Sun

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The Earth orbits the Sun in an elliptical path, meaning the distance between each body constantly fluctuates. Perihelion is the specific point in this orbit at which the Earth is closest to the Sun with this phenomena occurring near January 3rd annually. In contrast to this, aphelion, is when the Sun is at its farthest distance from the Earth, which occurs in July each year. Interestingly and counterintuitively, the Earth is coldest during its perihelion phase (when the sun is closest to the Earth) and warmest during aphelion (when the sun is furthest from the Earth). This paradox occurs because of the struggle between orbital distance and the 23.5 degree axial tilt of the Earth. Whilst the Earth is slightly closer to the Sun during the perihelion phase in early January, receiving 6% – 7% more solar energy than in July, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun which forces sunlight to strike the Earth’s ground at a more shallow angle, therefore spreading the light over a larger surface area and filtering it through more of the atmosphere. This reduction in heat overrides the slight shift of the Earth and Sun being closer or further away, as it is the tilt of the Earth, not the orbital proximity of the Sun which dictates both the 4 seasons as well as the perihelion/aphelion paradox. It should be noted, global temperatures peak in July because the Northern Hemisphere Continental Crust heats more rapidly than the Southern Hemispheres oceans

The Fallacy of Snowflakes Being Perfectly Symmetrical

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The 6 sided geometric symmetry observed within snowflakes is governed by the rigid molecular structure of hexagonal ice, which is the only crystalline form water can adopt within the Earth’s atmosphere, and the reason snowflakes always have 6 dendrites (points) like a hexagon. It is a common misconception that all snow crystals (snowflakes) exhibit perfect symmetry, as most often they do not possess this characteristic. It is true in the sense that at the microscopic molecular scale, snow crystals form perfectly, but it is untrue because at the macro, real world scale, anomalies virtually always form. This occurs because as the snow crystal becomes larger, water molecules no longer attach to develop and maintain a uniform orientation. Additionally, as the snow crystal grows and expands, factors of the ambient environment begin to influence it (e.g. effects of humidity and temperature etc.) causing the snow crystal to grow one way whilst in one position of a cloud and then grow in a completely different orientation once having been forcibly moved to a different spot within that same cloud. Because of this, it is rare but still possible to find a perfectly symmetrical snowflake. This explains why despite the complex and random nature of snow crystal growth, all 6 arms must align in every case and grow along the same 6 fixed 60 degree axes. If this does not occur, the snow crystal would violate the fundamental laws of energy minimization (to become most stable) dictated by the hydrogen bond lattice (framework connecting atoms within water), which would cause the structure of the snow crystal to become thermodynamically unstable and therefore highly prone to fracture

The Reason Life Upon Earth Migrated From the Ocean Onto Land

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Billions of years ago when the first living organisms started harnessing the energy of the sun through photosynthesis, they began producing a waste product which was oxygen. When oxygen rises high up into the atmosphere, it transforms into ozone which is why the Earth has a thin protective layer of ozone which alongside the magnetic field, helps protect the Earth from the violent ultraviolet radiation spewed out by the sun. As plants, microbes, and fungi migrated from the water to land, even more oxygen was produced, extending the ozone layer to become much more formidable. This was the catalyst for life migrating onto dry land which occurred 450,000,000 – 500,000,000 (450 million – 500 million) years ago during the Paleozoic Era, specifically during the Ordovician and Silurian periods

The Condition of the Earth After the Chicxulub Asteroid Collision Which Caused the Extinction of Dinosaurs

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Immediately after the Chicxulub Asteroid collided with the Earth, heat from the fireball produced reached temperatures of 5500 degrees Celsius and produced a shockwave which broke the speed of sound, causing gale force winds equivalent to a hurricane. Everything within 965 kilometers was instantly decimated. Within 11 minutes of impact, the sky began to darken as debris which had been pushed up into the atmosphere started to settle back down. As these small spheres the size of a grain of sand descended back down to Earth, they heated up upon re-entry, identical to that of an asteroid, which provided the illusion of billions of simultaneous shooting stars. The energy produced during this re-entry barrage of heat was more intense than the sun for a brief period of time and made the sky glow red, as if it was comprised of liquid magma. This debris reflected heat back towards the Earth and effectively caused the Earth to act as an enormous radiator. To add to this damage, wildfires began sprouting up due to the intense temperature which caused heat and smoke to fill the atmosphere, compounding the damage already done. Strong winds helped perpetuate these fires and because so much of the Earth was affected, it only took a few hours to become globalized, engulfing the entire Earth in a mass fire which burned hotter than a regular fire due to the inability to dissipate heat sideways. In addition to this, gypsum which contains sulphur, blocked the sun and cooled the Earth over the long term. Gypsum had a seismic effect upon the world’s oceanic ecosystems as ocean acidification occurred due to sulphuric rain being produced by the gypsum within the atmosphere. The reflecting of the sun caused 75% of all plants to die as the Earth only received as much light during mid day as what is present during a cloudy, moonless night of the modern day

The Peculiarity of Isotopes Xenon 129, Xenon 132, and Krypton 80 Upon Mars

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Scientific study of Mars has revealed the existence of the isotope xenon 129 present within the almost non-existent Martian atmosphere. This has puzzled scientists as there are a limited number of understood methods to achieve such an outcome. The first method is via cosmic radiation, specifically galactic cosmic rays and/or solar cosmic rays striking elements like barium or bromine upon the Martian surface which can cause neutron capture, leading to the formation of xenon 129 naturally. This is because Mars has a very thin atmosphere and lacks a global magnetic field, which means it is less protected from cosmic radiation in comparison to the Earth. The second method is to detonate nuclear weaponry upon Mars which has left scientists dumbfounded as to how such an event could occur without third party intervention. Because of this, the majority of scientists believe the former method to be the causation, however there are scientists who take issue with this theory, mainly due to the high ratios of xenon 129, xenon 132, and krypton 80 within the Martian atmosphere which can be a byproduct of the fast neutron fission of uranium and plutonium weaponry, with all 3 of these isotopes able to be created by generating nuclear energy as well, the topography of Mars itself as vast glass like smooth regions exist which strikingly resemble the Trinity nuclear weaponry test detonation site in New Mexico, United States of America, as well as the high concentration of specific isotopes within specific regions (e.g. high levels of krypton 80 in the Cydonia region of Mars etc.)

The Causation of the Colors of the Aurora Borealis

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The colors of the aurora borealis are layered with violet at the bottom, green in the middle, and red at the top, which signifies the structure of the atmosphere. Just as different chemicals create different colored flames (e.g. propane always producing a blue flame etc.), so too do photons bouncing around in the atmosphere off of different elements present. Nitrogen glows violet in a band at the bottom and oxygen glows green and red, creating a curtain 400 kilometers in length

The First Person to Weigh the Atmosphere

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Italian Jesuit Evangelista Torricelli was able to definitively prove that the atmosphere has a specific weight by designing an experiment in which a tube is filled with mercury and then placed into a dish of mercury. Torricelli disovered that when performing this experiment, half of the mercury runs down into the dish and the other half stays within the tubing. Until this point, it was believed impossible to create a negative or empty space as the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle once stated, “nature abhors a vacuum” believing that nature would forever fight against the creation of true and pure nothingness. This is the same reason that an object (e.g. plastic straw or an oil drum barrel etc.) crumbles when all of the air within is extracted. Torricelli was able to overcome this phenomena by using the exteme weight of mercury within a ridged glass tube. The level of mercury left within the tube was a measurement of the weight of the atmosphere, a balancing act between the weight of the mercury and the weight of air pressing down upon this mercury, balancing each other out like scales. Torricelli famously stated, “noi viviamo sommersi nel fondo d’un pelago d’aria” which means “we live submerged at the bottom of an ocean of air” in Italian, and his findings made scientists realize that air was a substance for the first time. Torricelli became the first person to invent the barometer because of his understanding of atmospheric pressure. Despite Aristotle being believed to be correct for millennia, Torricelli definitively proved that air does have weight

The Reason Hurricanes and Thunderstorms Form

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Hurricanes are caused by clusters of thunderstorms consolidating together, developing over warm, tropical seawater, typically in late summer. These storms merge together into a spiral shape to form a hurricane. Because intense pressure draws in warm, moist winds towards the center of the storm, this wind spiral upwards and spin faster and faster. The rapidly rising air then cools, forming towering storm clouds and torrential rains. Thunderstorms form in large cumulonimbus clouds which carry water vapor high into the atmosphere where it condensed into hail and ice. The movement of hail and ice in thunderclouds causes an electric charge to build up which zaps down as lightning

Re-Useable Rockets for Space Exploration

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Rockets are traditionally not re-used unlike aviation aircraft because making a landing from space means that a craft must come back to Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 8 kilometers per second, a much more difficult task than that of landing a commercial aircraft at a cruising speed of just over 800’ per second

The Protoplanet Theia Creating the Earth’s Moon

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The protoplanet which hit the Earth and created the moon is referred to as “Theia”. When Theia hit the Earth, its core fused with the Earth’s core sending enormous amounts of liquid rock into orbit. Because this liquid rock was in a magma like state, it was very easy for it to coalesce and from the moon. The collision changed Earth’s trajectory as a planet because metals like iron were released from the planets core, resetting Earth’s basic chemistry. Gasses like methane, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen, seeped into Earth’s atmosphere, gasses which were the building blocks of life. During the 1950’s, American chemist Stanley Miller carried out a classic experiment which included creating a cocktail of these gasses and simulating life on Earth by introducing electricity. What emerged was a film of brown slime, full of amino acids, the raw material of proteins, created by nothing but the very gasses already present on Earth. During the cooldown of the Earth after the collision, water vapor condensed to form oceans, oceans which were tidal by nature due to the moons gravitational pull. Chemicals found within the early oceans were aided by the moon as the moon pulled upon the Earth creating low tides which in turn were introduced to ultraviolet radiation from the sun as the sun’s heat evaporated the remaining water within those tidal pools. This constant wetting and drying of these tidal pools was the catalyst which created ribonucleic acid, complex molecules created by very simple materials under very simple conditions