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"Blue skies are seen on Earth because of the scattering of sunlight by very small particles of nitrogen." I read this as implying Nitrogen could also be large?
by rasur 11y ago
"Blue skies are seen on Earth because of the scattering of sunlight by very small particles of nitrogen."
I read this as implying Nitrogen could also be large?
- ergothus 11y agoIIRC, it is, for some value of "large" (As in, way low for what you'd consider an atmosphere, but much larger than what Pluto is "supposed" to have for something of such low gravity + not-so-young.)
- rasur 11y agoI think we may be at cross-purposes here.. I was thinking more of the size of a nitrogen atom rather than how much there is in the atmosphere. The size isn't going to vary substantially, is it?
- claudius 11y agoIt appears the article is referring to tholins[1], which are actually molecules containing nitrogen rather than atomic (or even diatomic) nitrogen. Nitrogen atoms themselves are essentially always the same size, except when either a) more neutrons have been added to the core, creating a different isotope of nitrogen (in this case the atom is still very much the same size, just heavier) or b) electrons have been added/removed from the outer shells, creating a chemically differently-behaving ion. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tholin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tholin
- rasur 11y agoThank you for the clarification. Much appreciated.