Planetary Vacuums, Atmospheres, & Life

PLANETARY VACUUMS, ATOMOSPHERES, & LIFE

Paul H. Carr

www.MirrorOfNature.org

VACUUM ON THE MOON 3 X 10-15 BAR

No greenhouse gas atmosphere

• Diurnal Variations:

Day 123 C (396 Kelvin)

Night -233 C (40 Kelvin)

ON EARTH

• Greenhouse gasses, blanketing the earth, give much smaller variations.

• On cloudless nights, non-condensing and increasing CO2 (100 year life) and other greenhouse gases keep us warmer than on the moon.

Increasing CO2 gas density: 1. raises temperature of earth’s surface. 2. reduces temperature of the stratosphere.

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-Outgoing spectral radiance at the top of Earth's atmosphere showing the absorption at specific frequencies and the principle absorber CO2 at 16 microns. -The red curve shows the flux from a classic "blackbody" at 294°K (≈31°C≈69.5°F).  Schmidt, G.A.,  2010 J. Geophys. Res.,115, D20106, doi:10.1029/2010JD014287.

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Vacuum of

1 Bar 3 x 10-1510-14 0.01 92

Gravity helps hold planet’s atmosphere. Venus had a CO2 runaway greenhouse effect.

PLANETARY TEMPERATURES, VACUUMS, & ATMOSPHERES.Science, 330, 356-359, 15 October 2010

Parameter Mars Earth Venus MercuryTemp. (K) 223 Day 300 Day 730 Day 700 Day 213 Night 280 Night 730 Night 100 Night

Pressure (bar) 0.01 1 92 10-14

Ultraviolet observations of VENUS’ cloud cover----Venus surface temp hotter than Mercury’s 700 K.

ATMOSPHERESVenus: 96% CO2, 3% Nitrogen.Earth: 21% Oxygen, 78% Nitrogen, 0.04% CO2

Mars: 95% CO2, 3% Nitrogen

Why does our earth have 21 % oxygen, 0.04% CO2? -Neighboring Venus & Mars are mostly CO2

Figure from “Cosmic Dawn” by Eric Chaisson

Photosynthesis of blue-green algae converted CO2 to Oxygen

Carbon Dioxide, CO2

Prokaryote Cells Eukaryote Cells

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• Cambrian Explosion of multicellular life made possible by increasing oxygen levels.

- CO2 was converted to O2 by photosynthesis.

- Enabling animals that get energy by oxidizing sugars.

Might our earth undergo a runaway greenhouse effect similar to Venus?

Fossil fuel burning is increasing CO2 concentrations. Temperature increases correlate with CO2.

CORRELTAION BETWEEN TEMP AND CO2 INCREASE

From the Greenhous Effect. 11

At present rate of 2.5 ppm rise per year, humans are increasing CO2 at a rate 300 times faster than the recovery from the ice age 18,000 -10,000 years ago.

CO2 CONCENTRATIONS, HIGHEST (33%) IN 800,000 YRS, COULD REACH ~1000 PPM BY 21OO.

Ice Age

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• Our present level of 400 ppm could reach ~ 1000 ppm by 2100.

• Arctic became ice-free 8 M years ago when CO2 = 300 to 450 ppm.

• Antarctic melted ~ 40 M years ago, CO2 ~ 700 ppm

-Earth was ice-free, sea levels 100s meters (~300 ft) higher.

Dinosaur Extinction 65M Yr. BP Figure from Dr. James Hansen, NASA GISS

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THERMAL MAXIMUM

Photograph by Ira Block When the Ocean Went Dark National Geographic October 2011, vol 220. no 4. pg. 90 http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/10/hothouse-earth/kunzig-text Paleoceanographer James Zachos holds a replica of a sediment core that shows an abrupt change in the Atlantic Ocean 51 -55 million years ago, at the onset of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). White plankton shells vanished from the seafloor mud, shifting its color from white to red. As planet-warming CO2 and CH4 clathrates surged into the atmosphere, Zachos says, it also seeped into the seas, acidifying the water and dissolving the shells.

PROPOSED DEBATE ON

LIFE on the EXO-PLANETSBetween

Cosmologist, CARL SAGAN (1934 – 1996)

Believed many kinds of intelligent life could form, but that the lack of evidence suggests that intelligent beings destroy themselves

rather quickly.

And

Evolutionary biologist, ERNST MAYR (1904 - 2005, Bedford, MA) Single cell life in the universe is very likely,

but intelligent life very rare.

PLANETARY VACUUMS, ATOMOSPHERES, & LIFE

CONCLUSIONS:

• We must stop CO2 fossil fuel emissions by: -Conservation, efficiency increases, carbon emission surcharge. - Energy from solar, wind, nuclear.

• The 21% oxygen that enables our life was made possible by the emergence of plant photosynthesis.