Question: What are the differences between our atmosphere and other solar systems?

Namrah Habib answered on 24 Jun 2020:

This is a hard question! For earth, our atmosphere is mostly nitrogen with trace amounts of other molecules like water and CO2. But this doesn’t necessarily have to be true for other planets. Within our Solar System, Mar’s has a relatively thin atmosphere compared to Earth and is mostly made of CO2. Planets like Jupiter and Saturn (gas giants) are mostly hydrogen and helium with small amounts of H2S and clouds are thought to be made of ammonium hydrosulfide (NH4SH).

Exoplanets, planets that orbit other stars, are thought to be even more diverse. Most exoplanets are thought to have hydrogen and helium based atmospheres. Scientist have also discovered carbon, oxygen, and sodium in exoplanet atmospheres too. Very few exoplanet atmospheres are known to have water vapour in them.