• Question: When does the Sky become Space?

    Asked by 246grak22 to Ry, Maggie, Hannah, Daniel on 10 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Maggie Lieu

      Maggie Lieu answered on 10 Nov 2017:

      There are lots of layers to our atmosphere, just have a look at this image:

      So we have:
      Troposhere : This is where airplanes usually fly upto

      Stratosphere : Here is the ozone layer that protects us from the Suns radiation

      Mesosphere : Is sort of the edge of our atmosphere, its where the meteorites burn up into shooting stars

      Thermosphere : The international space station (ISS) and other satellites live in this region, so we could call it space but…

      Exosphere : This is technically space!

    • Photo: Hannah Middleton

      Hannah Middleton answered on 10 Nov 2017:

      Maggie’s answer sounds great!

    • Photo: Ry Cutter

      Ry Cutter answered on 12 Nov 2017:

      There isn’t a clear definition, depending on where you’re from determines what height you use.
      The most common boundary between the atmosphere and space was created by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). They define the boundary of Earth’s atmosphere to be 100 kilometres high, or 62 miles (known as the Kármán line).
      According to the National Air and Space Museum, this boundary was established as the point where planes cannot fly any higher… the atmosphere is too thin! If you fly higher than 100 kilometres you can qualify for official astronaut status. 🙂
      Great question,

      Ryan

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