Hydrogen speed distribution at T = 1000 K 0.000200 0.000175 0.000150 0.000125 0.000100 0.000075 0.000050 0.000025 0.000000 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 Velocity (m/s) Probability per 1 m/s interval
Earth’s exosphere is the atmosphere’s highest zone, where the gas density is very low. In fact, an outward bound gas molecule probably will not hit another gas particle on its way up (think “exit” from the “exosphere”). The temperature in this layer is 1000 K.
After you review how particle speed relates to kinetic energy and temperature, compute the RMS speeds for atomic hydrogen, helium, and diatomic oxygen (O2) at the exosphere.
Using the concept of speed distribution (illustrated below), and the fact that earth’s escape velocity is 11.2 km/s, argue that after 4.5 billion years of history we should not expect Earth to have retained any primordial hydrogen that it might have possessed at the time it formed.
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