Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Interstellar Cloud Material: Contribution to Planetary Atmospheres

(Thanks goes out to Xenus)

A statistical analysis of the properties of dense interstellar clouds indicates that the solar system has encountered at least a dozen clouds of sufficient density to cause planets to accumulate nonnegligible amounts of some isotopes. The effect is most pronounced for neon. This mechanism could be responsible for much of the neon in Earth's atmosphere.

No comments:

Post a Comment