If Luna had an atmosphere with 1 Bar pressure, how long would it last?

Subject: If Luna had an atmosphere with 1 Bar pressure, how long would it last?

Date: Thu Mar 22 01:22:53 2007
Posted by Richard
Grade level: 10-12 School: SFU
City: Coquitlam State/Province: BC Country: Canada
Area of science: Astronomy
ID: 1174551773.As

Message:


This is a pretty silly question but people talking about terraforming the bodies
in the solar system have discussed it.  Let us say that we give the Earth's moon
a Oxygen / Nitrogen atmosphere with one bar pressure.  Luna is too small to hold
it so it will soon be lost to space.  Now some people have said that this will
take 10,000 year or more and it can be kept 'topped up' with volitiles from
comets.  Others have said it will last less about 200 years.  Is there a formula
that would let me calculate this time?

Re: If Luna had an atmosphere with 1 Bar pressure, how long would it last?

Current Queue | Current Queue for Astronomy | Astronomy archives

Try the links in the MadSci Library for more information on Astronomy.