Why does the atmosphere of the gas giants not escape into space?

1 Answer
James J.
Jun 4, 2017

The same reason that Earth's atmosphere doesn't...gravity.

Explanation:

Gravity is a force based on mass. The mass of a gas giant is going to be high, and therefore the gravity will be high. The formula for gravity does not change due to the state of matter.

Interestingly, the reasons that some bodies have atmospheres and others do not does not seem to be based entirely on gravity. The moon Titan has an atmosphere 50% thicker than the Earth but it has only 2% of the mass of the Earth. Meanwhile, Mercury is twice the size of Titan and has basically no atmosphere.

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