Energy & Green Tech

Researchers develop method for collecting clean water from fog

In countries such as Peru, Bolivia and Chile, it's not uncommon for people who live in foggy areas to hang up nets to catch droplets of water. The same is true of Morocco and Oman. These droplets then trickle down the mesh ...

Energy & Green Tech

How to pull carbon dioxide out of seawater

As carbon dioxide continues to build up in the Earth's atmosphere, research teams around the world have spent years seeking ways to remove the gas efficiently from the air. Meanwhile, the world's number one "sink" for carbon ...

Engineering

The single oil spill that can disrupt the global energy supply

Over the last year, the world's energy market has been highly volatile. The warmer-than-average winter in Europe helped avoid a gas crisis this year, but the forecast for the next winter is unclear as instabilities persist. ...

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Atmosphere

An atmosphere (from Greek ατμός - atmos, 'vapor' + σφαίρα - sphaira, 'sphere') is a layer of gases that may surround a material body of sufficient mass, by the gravity of the body, and are retained for a longer duration if gravity is high and the atmosphere's temperature is low. Some planets consist mainly of various gases, but only their outer layer is their atmosphere (see gas giants).

The term stellar atmosphere describes the outer region of a star, and typically includes the portion starting from the opaque photosphere outwards. Relatively low-temperature stars may form compound molecules in their outer atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere, which contains oxygen used by most organisms for respiration and carbon dioxide used by plants, algae and cyanobacteria for photosynthesis, also protects living organisms from genetic damage by solar ultraviolet radiation. Its current composition is the product of billions of years of biochemical modification of the paleoatmosphere by living organisms.

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