Atmospheres In The Solar System Essay

Within our Solar System lies an abundance of planets, each with their own unique characteristics, including the Terrestrial planets of Venus, Earth, and Mars who vary in many aspects but, most importantly, their atmosphere.

Firstly, Venus’s atmosphere is heavily laden with carbon dioxide (CO2), which makes up 96 percent of its atmosphere, 3.5 percent is made of nitrogen, and the remaining 0.5 percent is a combination of water vapor, sulfuric acid (which produce Venus’s thick, stable clouds), hydrochloric acid, and hydrofluoric acid. Venus’s upper atmosphere is cool, which the lower atmosphere is extremely hot and causes the surface temperature to rise to 470C (880F). Venus’ present atmosphere is very dry, but shows signs that it may have once contained water. An abundance of deuterium—the heavy isotope of hydrogen—developed, but was broken down into hydrogen and oxygen atoms by ultraviolet radiation that could not be absorbed by Venus’s lack of an ozone layer (Seeds).

Earth’s atmosphere originally outgassed the same amount of CO2 as Venus. This CO2 was later dissolved and converted into limestone by Earth’s oceans. Because of this, Earth’s atmosphere is now

composed mainly of nitrogen and oxygen with small traces of other gases (Windows to the Universe). Earth’s atmosphere allowed for water to exist in all forms, unlike Mars’ and Venus’ atmosphere.
Finally, Mars’ atmosphere compared to Earth and Venus is very thin but, much like Venus, is composed mainly of carbon dioxide with traces of argon and nitrogen, like Earth. Mars’ surface also warns that much of its atmosphere Is locked within chemical compounds in its soil. Because Mars lacks both water vapor or oxygen in its atmosphere, liquid water easily boils into vapor and can only exist on the Martian surface as ice, located at the polar caps, and vapor. Furthermore, unlike other Terrestrial planets which typically release carbon dioxide, water vapor, and other gases, Mars’ small size caused it to cool rapidly and release very little gas (Seeds).
By studying the atmospheres of Venus and Mars, we are able to see a glimpse into our future.

From Venus’s atmosphere, we can see that a stronger greenhouse effect would create a barren, volcanic wasteland unable to sustain life. Such a greenhouse effect could even be man-made through the human production of CO2 and Earth has already noticed a greenhouse effect forming, though it is much less damaging than Venus’. Similarly, Mars’ lack of an ozone layer shows us what our own thinning ozone layer could mean for hydrogen atoms within Earth’s atmosphere and water, and also demonstrates how a planet’s size and distance from the sun could have affected Earth and made life on it impossible. Through the thinning of our atmosphere, Earth could suffer from the same effects plaguing its neighbor, Mars

(Müller).
In conclusion, despite Earth, Mars, and Venus are in the class of Terrestrial planets, their atmospheric compositions and the effect such compositions has on their surfaces vary greatly. Through the observation of these planets, humans can see how to preserve Earth’s atmosphere, and the damaging effects that apathy could have on it.