Jakarta –
When you go up to a high mountain, oxygen levels have started to run low. Even to climb the highest mountain, oxygen cylinders are needed to ensure the safety of climbers. In that case, where is the end of the earth? Isn’t that really how far the boundaries of Earth and space are?
To answer that, we must understand about the layers of the atmosphere on Earth. Each layer of the atmosphere plays a role in ensuring our planet can host all kinds of life, doing everything from blocking cosmic radiation to creating the pressure needed to produce water.
“As you get further away from Earth, the atmosphere becomes less dense,” Katrina Bossert, a space physicist at Arizona State University, told Live Science.
“The composition also changed, and lighter atoms and molecules began to dominate, while heavier molecules remained closer to the Earth’s surface.”
When you move up in atmosphere, the pressure, or weight of the atmosphere above will weaken rapidly. Although commercial aircraft have pressurized cabins, rapid changes in altitude can affect the thin eustachian tube that connects the ear to the nose and throat.
“This is why your ear may burst during takeoff in an airplane,” said Matthew Igel, assistant professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of California.
Eventually, the air becomes too thin for conventional aircraft to fly. With such an aircraft, it is not capable of generating sufficient lift. Therefore, there are areas that have been designated by scientists as the end of our atmosphere and the beginning of space.
This is known as garis Kármán, named after Theodore von Kármán, a Hungarian American physicist, in 1957. He was the first to try to define the boundary between Earth and space. So, where is this line located?
“This is usually defined as 100 kilometers above Earth,” said Igel.
However, that doesn’t mean Earth’s atmosphere no longer exists beyond these 100 km. There are thousands of kilometers before Earth’s atmosphere is no longer detectable. If one reached the Kármán line, one might not even notice. Moreover, there is no sign of any thickness.
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(ask/afr)
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