What is the relationship between the atmosphere and gravity?

Answer 1

Not as much as you think.

It's clear that a planet needs gravity in order to have an atmosphere, but gravity's strength is not as significant as you might think.

Venus has nearly 100 times the atmospheric pressure of Earth despite having only 80% of Earth's mass.

Titan, Saturn's largest moon, has an atmosphere that is roughly 40% more than Earth's, despite having a mass about 1/50th that of Earth.

Although there are other factors that can affect a body's capacity to support an atmosphere, such as solar winds, it appears that the presence of gas in the planetary body's formation environment is the most crucial factor.

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Answer 2

Mason Allen

The atmosphere is held in place by Earth's gravity. Gravity pulls the gases of the atmosphere towards the Earth's surface, creating pressure and maintaining the atmosphere's density.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.