Atmosphere Atmosphere An atmosphere (from Modern Greek ἀτμός "(atmos)", meaning 'vapour', and σφαῖρα "(sphaira)", meaning 'sphere') is a layer or a set of layers of gases surrounding a planet or other material body, that is held in place by the gravity of that body. An atmosphere is more likely to be retained if the gravity it is subject to is high and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. The atmosphere of Earth is composed of nitrogen (about 78%), oxygen (about 21%), argon (about 0.9%) , carbon dioxide (0.03%) and other gases in trace amounts. Oxygen is used by most organisms
Atmosphere of Earth trend begin above 11 km, where the temperature stabilizes through a large vertical distance through the rest of the troposphere. In the stratosphere, starting above about 20 km, the temperature increases with height, due to heating within the ozone layer caused by capture of significant ultraviolet radiation from the Sun by the dioxygen and ozone gas in this region. Still another region of increasing temperature with altitude occurs at very high altitudes, in the aptly-named thermosphere above 90 km. Because in an ideal gas of constant composition the speed of sound depends only on temperature and not on the gas