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> Hydrogen escape on Earth occurs at ~500 km altitude at the exobase (the lower border of the exosphere) where gases are collisionless. Hydrogen atoms at the ex
by reshlo 2y ago
> Hydrogen escape on Earth occurs at ~500 km altitude at the exobase (the lower border of the exosphere) where gases are collisionless. Hydrogen atoms at the exobase exceeding the escape velocity escape to space without colliding into another gas particle.
> For a hydrogen atom to escape from the exobase, it must first travel upward through the atmosphere from the troposphere. Near ground level, hydrogen in the form of H2O, H2, and CH4 travels upward in the homosphere through turbulent mixing, which dominates up to the homopause. At about 17 km altitude, the cold tropopause (known as the "cold trap") freezes out most of the H2O vapor that travels through it, preventing the upward mixing of some hydrogen. In the upper homosphere, hydrogen bearing molecules are split by ultraviolet photons leaving only H and H2 behind. The H and H2 diffuse upward through the heterosphere to the exobase where they escape the atmosphere by Jeans thermal escape and/or a number of suprathermal mechanisms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion-limited_escape https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffusion-limited_escape
- lazide 2y agoI can’t decide if it is a good point, or an irrelevant point! Hah. No free/unbound hydrogen from the surface is going to escape directly that way. It will bind with oxygen or the like long beforehand and become water. But yes, a small portion of those molecules may later be broken down and may escape the planet that way. But statistically, very few of them are likely to do so. So, maybe technically correct?