Question: Why does Earth have an atmosphere and other planets dont?

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  1. Actually, other planets in our solar system do have an atmosphere – certainly Venus and Mars do. And I believe that Mercury has been discovered to have a very thin atmosphere. The gas giants are in a sense “all atmosphere.”

    The moon however, doesn’t have atmosphere. Basically this is because it is sufficiently small that the force of gravity on the moon is so weak that it can’t hold on to any gas.

    Is your question actually meant to be “why do the other planets not have an atmosphere that is like the Earth’s?”

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  2. As Matthew said, some of the other planets in our Solar System do have an atmosphere. There are two reasons a planet or moon might not have an atmosphere. The main one is mass: the lighter an object is, the less able to hold on to the gas. A secondary reason is temperature: if a planet or moon is too cold, then the atmosphere will freeze and fall to the surface. Pluto spends part of its orbit with an atmosphere, but when it’s furthest away from the Sun it freezes.

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  3. perhaps we have better music 🙂 no really it is as the others said

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  4. Looks like Matthew and Simon have covered it…

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