Abstract
The atmosphere of a planet is a case in point for the competition of energy and entropy. Energy tends to assemble all atmospheric molecules on the surface of the planet while entropy tends to spread the molecules evenly throughout space. In the end the entropy wins and planets will be bare of atmosphere. This will happen earlier for a hot planet than for a cold one. Earth, which is a temperate planet in the solar system, has already lost all light gases but it holds on — for the time being — to the heavier ones like nitrogen, oxygen and argon.
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© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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(2005). Planetary atmospheres. In: Entropy and Energy. Interaction of Mechanics and Mathematics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-32380-5_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-32380-5_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-24281-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-32380-8
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