MadSci Network: Astronomy |
Is it possible to recreate a moon's atmosphere at home?
I would like to duplicate Europa's atmosphere but I do not know how or what materials are needed. It's possible to recreate any sort of atmosphere; you just need the right equipment. Whether you have that sort of equipment at home depends on what sort of home you have. To see what I mean, read some of the excellent "Amateur Scientist" columns in Scientific American. Europa is especially simple (chemically) because its atmosphere is essentially pure oxygen. The pressure is a bit rough to emulate, though, because it's only 10-11 atmospheres! That needs equipment considerably better than conventional laboratory vacuum gear, which can only reach about 10-3 or 10-4 atmospheres. Unless you live in a high-powered physics research lab, you're unlikely to have access to that sort of vacuum at home. So yes, it can be done in principle; but no, it's not likely that you'll be able to reproduce Europa's atmosphere at home. Try for something simple, like Mars or Titan.
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