Questions tagged [atmosphere]
For questions about the gases which surround a planet or some other celestial body.
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Atmosphere that makes people wear masks for breathing
(I'm new here, so I apologize in advance if I do something wrong)
TL;DR of what I'm looking for:
A substance (natural or artificial) that...
can be suspended in an atmosphere
is harmful to breathe,...
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4answers
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How to define operational altitude on other planets?
Since different planets have different gravity, atmospheric pressure, air density and composition, it's obvious that a definition of operational altitude based on earth sea level is inadequate for a ...
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2answers
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Atmosphere of a terraformed 10 km planetoid with Earth gravity
Bernal spheres and other O'Neill cylinders are complicated, maintenance-high and fragile beasts. Someone started to make micro-black-holes and put them in asteroids, in order to have 1 to 10+km rock ...
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3answers
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Infrared reality
Is it possible for an earth-like planet to be perceived (by human eyes) in real-time as an infrared photograph? If so, in what conditions?
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1answer
107 views
Need some help in creating silicon life in cold temperatures
I am a new person to this but I have been looking at similar questions about silicon life.
I'm currently trying to create silicon-based lifeforms on a planet with a surface temperature of about, -36....
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4answers
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Would a high gravity rocky planet be guaranteed to have an atmosphere?
I want to create a planet with a deep gravity well, say about 12G at the surface. At first I wanted the planet to have either no atmosphere or a very thin one. But I want this to be as close to ...
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1answer
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Is an oxygen/nitrogen cycle possible, given a cold enough climate?
Suppose for whatever reason the sun's power has weakened. The Earth gets colder. All the water has frozen, and the temperature is getting to around the boiling point of oxygen.
Can an "oxygen cycle" ...
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1answer
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Sulphur dioxide planet
Trying to create a planet with sulphur dioxide (which is heavier than oxygen I think) on a lower level and oxygen above it. Is this possible? Need something that is horrible on the bottom and want ...
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2answers
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light spectrum from a red dwarf star on a planet with an ozone and cloudy atmosphere
What light spectrum would hit the surface of a planet orbiting a red dwarf star?
the planet has a humid, greenhouse & cloudy atmosphere, and a strong ozone, 80%+ surface water.
Planet is tidally ...
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1answer
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Would it be worthwhile to locate capital in high mountains on an exoplanet with higher atmospheric pressure?
Tech level: modern - like
Atmospheric pressure at local sea level:
Oxygen ~30 kPa
Nitrogen ~180 kPa
(So roughly counting 1.5 times more oxygen, 2.25 times more nitrogen)
Technically speaking such ...
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2answers
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Will winds always be the same?
Around Earth's equator, there's a band of low pressure called the Doldrums. 30 degrees north and south are bands of high pressure called the horse latitudes. Finally, there are more low-pressure bands ...
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1answer
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Determining Planet rotation period that would allow for global Wind Cell
I'm trying to figure out how quickly a planet could rotate while also having a single air flow cell, such as Hadley cells, that would circle from hot pole to cold pole, etc. as in the case of Tidally ...
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Could flying insects re-enter the Earth's atmosphere from space without burning up?
Huge numbers of genetically modified flying insects (purpose not disclosed here but it relates to affecting the whole of humanity) are to be dropped into the Earth's atmosphere from space so that they ...
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4answers
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How does my spell ignite the sky?
For years, humanity and nephilim have battled (more or less) together to staunch the unending flow of demons and angels wrecking havoc on Earth in their unending wars.
Now, we are finally in ...
3
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2answers
129 views
Carbon cycle on planet with mainly CO2 atmosphere
What effect would having CO2 in your atmosphere in place of, on earth, Nitrogen have on the carbon cycle? would the carbon cycle even work? I'm engineering A theoretical tidally locked planet with an ...
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vote
2answers
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Properties of a planet roughly four times as big as Earth
I have some research I want to do about a planet for a novel I'm writing. It is a fiction/science fiction novel, but I do wish to actually have some parts of the world correct in the scenes I depict.
...
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2answers
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Can enough CO2 be captured, in order to reduce global warming, to reduce oxygen levels to suffocating levels?
In a comment to a recent question, it was pointed out that Biosphere II failed in part because too much CO2 was absorbed by the concrete, leaving insufficient oxygen in available CO2 to be released by ...
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1answer
107 views
Asteroids with an atmosphere
What would be the likelihood of an asteroid developing a thin layer of gas? If an asteroid is capable of having an "atmosphere", then how likely would be be for primitive plant life, such as a moss, ...
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5answers
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How can this habitable planet have a moon with a naturally occurring atmosphere?
Assuming the planet is earth-like, with more surface water and atmospheric oxygen, and within the habitable zone of a sun-like star, how can a moon orbiting this planet retain a thick atmosphere?
The ...
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2answers
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What color should the snow be in this chlorine world?
This question is in the same context (the same world) proposed by Steven L. Gillett in his book: "World-building".
And actually there have been some other questions about this same chlorinated world. ...
8
votes
1answer
119 views
Carbon cycle in a sulphur-based biochemistry
I'm designing a world with advanced life forms that use a sulphur-based biochemistry (see this link for context). I would like to create a carbon cycle analogous to Earth, where:
Photosynthesis ...
5
votes
2answers
262 views
Reducing atmospheric pressure on Snowball Earth
A Snowball Earth is a global condition (which may have occurred many times) in which the temperature everywhere on the surface was, for extended periods (up to tens of millions of years), below the ...
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2answers
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If a Mount Everest-sized mountain had Earth's sea level atmospheric pressure at the top, what would the atmospheric pressure be at sea level?
I'm designing a world with earthlike gravity where the human colonists are intended to live on top of a gigantic shield volcano as tall as Mount Everest. What would the pressure be at the bottom? ...
6
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1answer
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Seasonal pressure areas over continents located in both northern and southern hemispheres
On a real world Earth, the seasonal changes in temperature of continents create high-pressure areas during winter in that hemisphere, and low-pressure areas during summer in that hemisphere.
Should ...
6
votes
1answer
184 views
Possible sky colors compatible with life on earth
This question has been asked in similar forms on this site already with some good answers like here:
What Color Can the Sky Be?
How could the sky be orange in a breathable atmosphere?
What would ...
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votes
5answers
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If Earth's atmosphere were to be enclosed, what effects would what have?
A universe-destroying parasite is set loose, and basically earth is placed under magical quarantine. (Think of it like the world is wrapped in magical cellophane.) My question is, how would earth's ...
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votes
2answers
141 views
Calculating an eccentric enough orbit to allow a dip into atmosphere and escape again
How would I calculate if it is possible to have an eccentric enough orbit around a gas giant to dip the periapsis some depth(how deep?) into the atmosphere of a gas giant like Jupiter or Saturn and ...
6
votes
3answers
135 views
Forging with geothermal heat: Possible alternative to fire in alien species' technological progression?
A world idea I'm playing with for a sci-fi idea I'm working on has an atmosphere similar to the composition of Earth's atmosphere during the Carboniferous Period: Lots of oxygen, so while a human or a ...
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2answers
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Effects of long term exposure to a non-earth like rich atmosphere
Imagine that humanity found a rocky planet with earth like gravity, atmospheric pressure, and temperature, orbiting a sun-like star. The only problem is that the planets atmosphere is that it is ...
3
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4answers
140 views
Underground Atmosphere
I have a terrestrial planet that is similar to Mars in many ways, a desert-like surface, thin atmosphere, and inhospitable to large flora and fauna as we know it.
This planet has ceased tectonic ...
6
votes
1answer
193 views
What would be the atmospheric pressure gradient in an open pit reaching to the centre of the moon?
Inspired by this question, what would the pressure stabilize at over tens of thousands of years (at the moon's centre, surface, and any other interesting points) if you created a structurally stable ...
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5answers
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How deep must be a pit on the moon to hold atmosphere at 1ATM on the bottom
In my world I would like to create a pit on the Moon filled with air.
How deep would the pit need to be to get 1 ATM of pressure
Could the pit maintain the air or would it be lost to space?
If it ...
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4answers
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Putting oxygen on the Moon - the easy way
It would be nice if there were an atmosphere on the Moon with oxygen; in fact it could be just oxygen at 1/5 the Earth's pressure. People could live there. Now of course given the Moon's lower gravity ...
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2answers
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Which unique features should have a habitable planet originating from atmosphere stripped waterworld?
Premises:
red dwarfs tend to have violent sun storms in their early years, thus are expected to strip atmosphere of planets that may be in their habitable zones;
water worlds (including planets with ...
6
votes
1answer
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What are materials that could give an atmosphere a deep blue color?
Here's some rough WIP pixel art of the planet I'm trying to create just to give you an idea of what I'm talking about color wise. I'm referencing the dark blue that you see at the poles of the planet.
...
5
votes
1answer
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Is a planetary 'temperature inversion' plausible?
It was disputed in the 1940s-50s whether Venus
had a hot surface and cool cloud layer or
a cool surface and hot cloud layer.
As I recall, both were considered at the limits of plausibility at the ...
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votes
3answers
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How to have people and big bugs at the same time
There's been a few questions about making big bugs before and the consensus in they can't get much bigger than 3ft or so (which in reality is still huge). Catch is, you need quite a bit of extra ...
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5answers
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What would make radio transmission unfeasible on a planet?
I am looking for a good reason to make radio communications on a planetary scale unfeasible or impossible. Short-range use is acceptable, but no transmissions should make it to orbit or over the ...
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5answers
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50% O₂ 25% Neon 23% Nitrogen and 3% trace gasses?
Could an atmosphere of 50% O₂ 25% Neon 23% Nitrogen and 3% trace gasses be survivable for a human being at the similar or slightly less atmospheric pressures as Earth?
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5answers
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What natural event could strip all of Earth atmosphere?
I was reading up on Mars thin atmosphere and was wondering how could Earth becomes like the red planet except it only has only 100 pascal (air pressure) at imaginary sea level? Mars is 600 pascal on ...
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3answers
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What Muscles in the Human Body Could Produce a Flight Stroke?
I have an idea for a story where humans on a low g planet with a dense atmosphere wear artificial wings to fly. I know that muscles they would use to produce a flight stroke would be in the upper body,...
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6answers
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Greenhouse Planet Terraforming - Will a balloon jacket self-stabilise?
Most of what follows is scientifically dubious. I'm looking to clarify one aspect and one aspect alone.
A small planet is being terraformed by an alien race who have been doing this for millennia. ...
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2answers
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Human Shoulder Motion & Powered Flight
I have an idea for a story where human live on world with low gravity and a dense atmosphere. These humans have developed artificial wings that are attached to their arms so they can fly. Since the ...
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2answers
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How to predict the color of this sky?
How can I predict the color of the sky based on the information provided?
Atmospheric composition:
| 2% Trace gases | 58% Nitrogen | 26% Oxygen | 11% Argon | 3% Carbon dioxide |
Average ...
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3answers
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What amount of heat would be necessary to evaporate the oceans? Can his heat threshold be reached if there were no ozone layer? [closed]
The problem in my fictional future Earth was: almost the entire ozone layer disappeared due to a massive release of CFCs in the atmosphere. I was trying to calculate if this would lead to the oceans ...
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votes
3answers
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Airships in a world with 1/3 gravity but 3 times the mass of atmosphere?
In the first question I posted here on Worldbuilding Stack Exchange, I asked if lifting gas would be more effective on a world with 1/3 of Earths gravity but with the same atmospheric composition as ...
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2answers
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How far can a human see?
I'm asking this question as a reference for use in worldbuilding when developing world size, atmospheric content, or alien optometric abilities (aka, vision).
While I'm specifically asking two ...
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2answers
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Would an atmosphere of supercritical CO2 affect available light?
Many of you may have heard that supercritical CO2 (as in at just the right temperature and pressure to be in between gas and liquid) is a possible alternative solvent for life, like water is for us. ...
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2answers
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Atmosphere density and visibility range [duplicate]
How far can you see through an atmosphere like the one we have on Earth?
The protagonist inhabits a huge world, like the inside of a sphere, a Dyson-sphere, with an approximate circumference defined ...
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2answers
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How much hydrogen and oxygen can I add to an atmosphere before it explodes?
Hydrogen and oxygen gases can be combined to form water and a lot of heat. As with many exothermic reactions, the heat from this process can provide activation energy to the reaction of more H2 with ...
