Mercury has no atmosphere due to its small size and due to the fact it is close to the sun, which has effectively 'burned' off any atmosphere that it may have had.
Mercury is the planet that has no atmosphere. Its close proximity to the Sun and relatively weak gravity have caused any atmosphere it once had to be burned off and lost into space.
The atmosphere affects Saturn in many ways. One way that it affects it is because it affects the wind variations on the planet. Another way that it affects the planet is that it cause the "Green House Effect". The "Green House Effect" is when heat is trapped in something. If you think of a green house it is all glass to let is heat but not let the heat out. With a planet the planet gets heat from the sun and then when the planet starts to cool off the atmosphere holds the heat in. That is how an atmosphere can effect the planet.
I guess that the atmosphere would change in terms of depth if the planets temperature changed enough.
No. Mars has no magnetic field. Which is probably why it has no atmosphere either. The magnetosphere protects us from the solar radiation, which would otherwise knock our atmosphere off.
Mainly, the mass of a planet doesn't matter, considering many planets are made up of gas, and how in different situations, atmospheres can be destroyed (The Sun burnt off Mercury's Atmosphere). However, in some cases, the planet can be in a good situation on the galaxic map, and have great conditions for an atmosphere, such as Earth. In which case, the mass of an object can attract a smaller object, causing gravity. Therefore, the bigger the mass of a planet when in right and specific conditions, the more atmosphere it can attract, if there is any floating by the planet. If it is bigger it will have more gravitational influence and therefore gather more gases.
The factors that determine whether a planet has an atmosphere or not are mass and temperature. Not exactly... There are two main factors that determine whether a planet can develop and keep an atmopshere and they are the escape velocity of the planet (how fast the object has to go to escape the gravitational pull) and the speed of the molecules in the atmosphere. For example the escape velocity for earth is about 11km/s (25,ooomph) Other factors include proximity to a larger body that can will steal the atmosphere away, and distance to the sun which produces solar wind that can literally blow the atmosphere away.
The small planet of Mercury has almost no atmosphere. If there was ever an atmosphere on that planet, the sun likely burned it off.
The atmosphere affects Saturn in many ways. One way that it affects it is because it affects the wind variations on the planet. Another way that it affects the planet is that it cause the "Green House Effect". The "Green House Effect" is when heat is trapped in something. If you think of a green house it is all glass to let is heat but not let the heat out. With a planet the planet gets heat from the sun and then when the planet starts to cool off the atmosphere holds the heat in. That is how an atmosphere can effect the planet.
The Earth has an atmosphere because it has the gravity necessary to keep the gases from floating off into space. The more mass a planet has, the more gravity it has, and the more gravity it has, the thicker an atmosphere it can sustain.
Mercury - the closest planet to the sun. Solar wind and radiation from the sun also blast off some of Mercury's minuscule atmosphere (Mercury's atmosphere is sometimes referred to as an exosphere)
Mercury - the closest planet to the sun. Solar wind and radiation from the sun also blast off some of Mercury's minuscule atmosphere (Mercury's atmosphere is sometimes referred to as an exosphere)
Mercury - the closest planet to the sun. Solar wind and radiation from the sun also blast off some of Mercury's minuscule atmosphere (Mercury's atmosphere is sometimes referred to as an exosphere)
No. You cannot simply be "sucked up" by the atmosphere of a planet unless there just happens to be a storm with an extremely powerful updraft. Mars does have dust devils, but the atmosphere there is too thin for them to lift a person off the ground.
A magnetic field holds atmosphere to the planet. Without a magnetosphere the solar wind from the sun will blow the atmosphere away. That is why our planet still has an atmosphere, we have the magnetic poles.
I guess that the atmosphere would change in terms of depth if the planets temperature changed enough.
No. Mars has no magnetic field. Which is probably why it has no atmosphere either. The magnetosphere protects us from the solar radiation, which would otherwise knock our atmosphere off.
sunlight reflecting off Saturn's atmosphere
It's by analzying the spectrum of light reflected off the planet, through a method called spectroscopy. Different elements absorb light energy at different wavelengths, and re-emit light at specific, well-characterized wavelengths. By analyzing the light reflected off a planet, scientists can work out the most abundant elements in its atmosphere.