Why does hydrogen exist in Mercury's atmosphere? Hydrogen escapes form Earth, because Earth is not dence enough to contain it, However Mercury's atmosphere has hydrogen yet Mercury is less dense than Earth. If possible could somone provide me with a link explaing how this could happen?
2007-03-22 15:58:41 · 4 answers · asked by razorsk8er55 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Mercury's atmosphere has been almost totally eroded by the Sun, what little it has left it doesn't hold onto for very long. The hydrogen and helium in It's "atmosphere" comes from the solar wind, particles ejected by the sun. View the attached Wikipedia link for more information.
2007-03-22 16:25:10 · answer #1 · answered by qin137 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Solar wind is made up of ionized protons (the nucleus of the Hydrogen atom stripped of it's electron). I suspect that Mercury's atmosphere is just transient solar wind particles and not neutral hydrogen atoms, but ya know? I'm too lazy to go check and provide a link, so get someone else to do your homework slugger.
2007-03-22 16:24:50 · answer #2 · answered by stargazergurl22 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mercury currently doesn't have an atmosphere. It might have had one in the past, but the solar wind as st
2007-03-23 16:16:05 · answer #3 · answered by starkid2286 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hydrogen doesn't escape from the earth because the earth isn't dense enough to contain it. Hydrogen is simply less dense than Nitrogen and Oxygen so it rises above the other gases. If it's the primary gas on a planet, it doesn't have any "buoyancy" b/c it's the main gas.
It's like gas always floats to the top of a liquid b/c it's much less buoyant. But if there's no liquid, the gas doesn't get "pushed up" by anything.
2007-03-22 16:54:35 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 4⤋