Why doesn't the vacuum of space suck out our oxygen from earth?

Question

If space is a vacuum then why doesn't the vacuum suck off the oxygen on the surface?

Answer 1

Air has weight. Not a lot of weight, but it has weight. Gravity is pulling the air toward the surface of the earth. Basically, we have an atmosphere because our planet is big enough that it has enough gravity to pull down an atmosphere. Smaller bodies, like the moon and Mars, lack a significant atmosphere because they are too small to have enough gravity to pull in the lightweight molecules of an atmosphere.

Answer 2

In the first place the gravitational force holds the gases to the earth. The oxygen is converted to Ozone by the effect of the radiations coming to earth. One thing you need to keep in mind that there is no vacuum if you look from the side of Oxygen molecule. It goes to the place where there is an attractive force. The earth atmosphere is a self balanced structure, that's why you are seeing the air movements inside the atmosphere. Our atmosphere can be visualized as a liquid drop in the air, if you neglect the evaporation.

Answer 3

The Earth's atmosphere is composed of many gases. the most abundant is Nitrogen, not Oxygen, which is the second most abundant.
From www.ace.mmu.ac.uk
The remaining 1% of the atmospheric gases is made up of trace gases. These include the noble gases, very inert or nonreactive gases, of which the most abundant is argon. Other noble gases include neon, helium, krypton and xenon.

Hydrogen is also present in trace quantities in the atmosphere, but because it is so light, over time much of it has escaped Earth's gravitational pull to space.

The remaining trace gases include the greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapor and ozone, so-called because they are involved in the Earth natural greenhouse effect which keeps the planet warmer than it would be without an atmosphere.

:-D The Earth loses some atmosphere to space. But the Earth's gravity holds the heavier gases down, and the Earth's magnetic field protects the upper atmosphere from the Solar Wind, which would blow off more atmosphere into space if Earth had no magnetic field.

Answer 4

Gravity. Mars used to have a denser atmosphere and free standing water. The ingredients for life. But Mars is much smaller than the earth, and as a consequence has much less of a gravitional force. Much of the atmosphere simply escaped leaving it a dead planet. If for some reason the earth's gravitional pull weakened substantially this could happen here. There is some evidence that our gravitational force is weakening as I type this. Studies indicate that the Moon is drifting farther away from us. This will have an effect on tides and our own bodies. Gravity is one of the things that makes life possible on earth.

Answer 5

Well it wouldn't suck like a vacuum at home... the matter would just disburse... spread out and be drawn eventually to another massive object. But the mass of the Earth and the consequential gravity draw other objects of (any) mass down to it.

Answer 6

you're actual in that it is not plausible to seal thoroughly adversarial to leakage. there'll continuously be a small volume of diffusion via the in structure and into area. notwithstanding that is an rather tiny effect, and straightforward to actual off the microscopic little bit of gas lost. yet in case you left an oxygen tank on the moon and got here again a million years later, it should be empty. an same effect makes it complicated to maintain a good vacuum in the international. gas will continuously diffuse via your container and into your container. again that is a tiny effect, notwithstanding that is sufficient that the basically right vacuum in the international is not in any respect almost as good because the vacuum in area. yet as human beings suggested, that is incorrect to imagine of the a million ecosystem distinction between vacuum and a spacesuit as "powerful". Deep-sea submarines ought to content with stress differentials a lot, a lot larger than that.

Answer 7

Because there is no sucking force in space.

Suction is caused by the weight of the air pushing on a vacuum. There is no air weight pushing on the vacuum of space.

Answer 8

Earth's gravity holds the oxygen and all the atmosphere in.

Answer 9

Gravity acts on all molecules including those of the atmosphere. In other words, gravity holds the atmosphere around earth.

Answer 10

Because gravity holds the particles of gases. Mean root square velocity of these particles are less that the escape velocity on the earth. Hence they can't escape from the Earth's gravitational pull.