Primary atmosphere

A primary atmosphere, often also called a primordial atmosphere or proto-atmosphere, is an atmosphere of a protoplanet that forms by accretion of gaseous matter from the protoplanetary disk. Gas giant planets such as Jupiter and Saturn have primary atmospheres. Primary atmospheres are very thick compared to secondary atmospheres like the one found on Earth. The primary atmosphere was lost on the terrestrial planets of the Solar System due to a combination of surface temperature, mass of the atoms and the escape velocity of the planet.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.