Fun facts about the mesosphere

 Fabricated fun facts about the mesosphere

The mesosphere is a layer of the atmosphere that extends from about 50 to 200 miles above Earth's surface and consists mainly of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide (CO2), water vapor and small amounts of other gases. It can be seen in the form of clouds or cirrus. The mesosphere is also known as the thermosphere because it has temperatures much colder than those at the ground level. The average temperature at the surface is about -80F, but the temperature drops as low as about -100F around the upper edge of the mesosphere.

The mesosphere is not without its dangers. Because it is so cold, small meteors may temporarily exist in the mesosphere, known as mesov formations. They can occur due to the gravitational influence of a larger piece of rock or even of an entire comet. The formation of a mesov can result in a weather effect such as a volley of smaller meteorites known as a fireball. If a large meteor were to impact the upper edge of the mesosphere, an impact energy of 300 megatons could be released. Even such a large impact would not cause enough damage to cause a global catastrophe, but would be more than enough to destroy the area around the impact. (For comparison, the Hiroshima atomic bomb was around 10 megatons. The power of the Tunguska meteorite was 6 megatons, but it hit closer to the surface of the Earth and was more than enough to cause a global wide streak of darkness and affect the entire population of a continent.)
Because of the extreme cold, particularly at the upper edge of the mesosphere, it is difficult for any gases to hold their form. This causes a kind of "plasticity" in the atmosphere. The various gases (and other particles) are able to move about, sometimes flowing as one and other times flowing as many individual parts. This phenomenon, in combination with the fact that the mesophere is full of other cosmic dust and small rocks and industrial solids from space, results in the sky being dark. The darkness is not, however, perpetual. The mesosphere is not a blacked out void. It is, instead, a region of dim lighting.
It should be noted that the term "dark" has been used to describe the sky along the mesophere. This is inaccurate. The sky, while dimmer than normal, is still able to support some lighting. The darkness is more of a mood than anything else.

Due to the plasticity of the atmosphere and the solids in it, there are sometimes strange effects from the sky. One particularly interesting effect is night glow. Night glow occurs when dust and gas interact in a certain way and the result is a faint glow that is visible at night. For whatever reason, night glow areas seem to appear around "stations" of skywalkers. Quite a few have been spotted around the one that leads from the Earth's surface directly up to the first Oalkwardner settlement. It should be noted that this glow is not as bright as a full moon, though it's still noticeable. When first noticed by Earth explorers, the glow was thought to be an alien force or perhaps a ghost. Due to the mood lighting of the dark sky, it is actually the result of the atmosphere working.

There are a few different layers to the atmosphere. The outermost is known as exosphere. Beyond the exosphere is the thin line between the sky and the endless blackness of space. Immediately beyond this is the bright side of the sky (for you and me). Beyond that is the other side of the sky, for your skywalkers. The layers are distinct, yet gradual. As you can see in the image, they are separated by colors: blue for the upper atmosphere, green for the mid, and red for the lower atmosphere.

Because the atmosphere is so thin, the effects of gravity are noticable less and less the further you travel into it. This means that the highest parts of the atmosphere are nearly weightless. If you were to step off the edge of the atmosphere (or into space), you would float to the upper layers of the sky. The opposite is true if you were to fall out of it. This would be the result of falling out of the sky at terminal velocity, which is about 23,000 feet per second. For reference, that's around the height of a tall skyscraper.

What would happen, however, is very different than just falling straight down. At this velocity, you would be ripped apart by the pressure and speed of entry. Your body would be destroyed by the air, which is over five times as thick at this height than at sea level. Still, this is only true in one direction - from space to the atmosphere. If you were to attempt to reach any other direction, such as toward the Earth's surface, you would simply pass straight through. The air is so thick and the barrier of the atmosphere is so close that any significant distance between you and the ground is impossible to cross.

That's more or less unscientific fun facts about the mesosphere

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