• Question: would it be possible to create a false atmosphere on another planet?

    Asked by anon-181236 on 22 Jun 2018.
    • Photo: Leo Beacroft

      Leo Beacroft answered on 22 Jun 2018:

      hmm potentially, yes. If the gravity of the planet isn’t strong enough, then the air would drift off into space, so in that case you might need some sort of dome to contain the air.
      I’ll have a think about this one some more.

    • Photo: Joanne Sharpe

      Joanne Sharpe answered on 22 Jun 2018:

      This is such an interesting idea! I’m not sure, I don’t have any expertise, but if it is not possible it’s the basis for a Sci-Fi movie for sure!

    • Photo: Ashley Akbari

      Ashley Akbari answered on 24 Jun 2018:

      Not an expert on this, but the term “terraforming” of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to the environment of Earth to make it habitable by Earth-like life.

      This is usually something found in science fictions rather than actual science so far, but as we start to visit planets like Mars more, this may be something that NASA and others are working on?

    • Photo: Liza Selley

      Liza Selley answered on 28 Jun 2018:

      I think it would take a lot of trial and error to create the right atmosphere for us. As Leo says, the gravity would be different to ours but also the temperature and the types of gas that exist there currently. We would have to do some experiments to see how the gases that we introduce would react with the ones that are already there. For example, at the right temperature, adding oxygen to a hydrogen rich environment could give us water rather than oxygen – handy perhaps but not an atmosphere!

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