Atmospheres of solar system planets

[indrek120]

Hello!

I make a school research about the atmospheres of solar system planets. Could anyone help me with choosing a narrower topic in this field and set hypothesis? Also i will be thankful if you post here sites about this topic.

Thank you!

 

[Shpaget]

Welcome

Well, it would help if you could say how much in details you plan on going.

But let me help you start...
Mercury: no atmosphere worth mentioning, just some, as wiki puts it, "tenuous surface-bounded exosphere".
Venus: has very dense atmosphere (90+ times the pressure on Earth), primarily composed of CO2 and some N2. Strong greenhous effect makes Venus very hot.
Earth: probably not interesting for your research if you plan on concentrating on one planet
Mars: 95% CO2, 3% N2, 1,6% Ar. Average pressure is less than 1% of Earths. It is so thin because Mars has no magnetosphere to protect it from Sun.

Gas giants are out of the question I guess, right?

I guess Mars would be your best choice since Venus' atmosphere is not very hospitable (hot, crushing) so not much to do there and Mercury has none.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_System#Inner_planets
You've got links to all the planets there.

BTW, we don't do homework for free.

 

[kg]

Pluto has a very interesting amosphere!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluto#Atmosphere

"Pluto's atmosphere consists of a thin envelope of nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide, derived from the ices on its surface.[69] As Pluto moves away from the Sun, its atmosphere gradually freezes and falls to the ground. As it edges closer to the Sun, the temperature of Pluto's solid surface increases, causing the ices to sublimate into gas. This creates an anti-greenhouse effect; much like sweat cools the body as it evaporates from the surface of the skin, this sublimation has a cooling effect on the surface of Pluto."

 

[indrek120]

Well, thanks for advices, Mars and Pluto are both very interesting.

But the biggest problem for me is to set hypothesis, which determines all the content of the research. In instruction there is said : The research is not a precis, it is based on the analysis of unstudied (little studied) materials, which allows to make conclusions in accordance with the set hypotheses.

This research must be about 15 pages and my graduation depends on that.

And Shpaget, i don´t ask you to do my homework, i just ask for some advices :roll:
What you give is what you get,right?

I´ll be very thankful for any kind of advices.

 

[yevaud]

Well, you could do a nice progression of what the atmosphere of Mars might have been several GY ago, the effects of a reducing atmosphere, and finally through to what we see there today.

 

[indrek120]

Thats a very good idea, Yevaud. Thanks.
But does anyone know any good and reliable site, where i can read about Mars history and different theories about its evolution?

 

[Shpaget]

Well, wiki should be pretty reliable on this subject, also, it's a good starting point for further research.
You'll find lot of links under External links
Also see the See also part for further reading.

 

[yevaud]

Try the following sites:

http://www.atmos.washington.edu/~davidc ... d-PDF2.pdf

http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10 ... .2009.0923

http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/onlinebk ... chap13.htm

http://www-curator.jsc.nasa.gov/antmet/ ... sphere.cfm

Those, plus the wiki links mentioned, should start you off nicely.

 

[indrek120]

Thanks for those materials.

 

[SpaceTas]

Don't forget Titan. It 1.5 density of Earth.
This one is very interesting because it is like a deep freeze version of the earths atmosphere. Instead of a hydrological cycle with water on earth, it has a cycle using liquid methane/ethane gives weathering (ice no rock), lakes, streams, boggy ground.

Of course you could just home in on the Earth's atmosphere; maybe just pick it's origin and evolution. A comparison with Venus is instructive in the role of oceans vis-a-vis CO2.

I'd probably avoid extrasolar planet atmospheres (hot Jupiters) because there is not much reliable popular literature on them.

Press releases are only good for knowing what discoveries have been made, but getting reliable info out of them (and many news/web pieces) is nigh on impossible. If you do look at web material go to original release rather than secondary releases such as Space.com

 

[SpaceTas]

Pluto's atmosphere is not freezing out as quickly as original models expected. This is based upon a series of occultation measurements. There could well be some left when New Horizons arrives in July 2015.