how does a spaceship leave the atmosphere?

[1bad350]

maybe this isnt the right place to ask these questions, but how does a spaceship leave the atmosphere? if the world is spinning at 1000's of km/h then the outer atmospehere must be travelling at an amazing speed to keep up with the earth. what keeps the atmosphere from blowing away? and when a spaceship left the atmosphere wouldnt it explode or something? are there an particles in space? i mean the spaceship would have to be travelling at thousands of km/h in a circular orbit when it left the atmosphere, so if it hit even a small still standing particle in space wouldnt it damage it?


here are a few questions i would like answered
how fast does the earth spin?
how fast does the outher atmosphere spin?
is there anything is space? dust air etc?

if the outer atmosphere didnt keep up with the earth, wouldnt there be like a hughe bulge at somepoint in the atmosphere?

 

[LewisWildermuth]

I don't have all the answers at the moment but I do know a few...

Yes space has particals in it... Solar wind is a good example, a solar flare induced burst in the solar wind can actualy and has pushed sattelites out of orbit.

Every time the shuttle comes back down it has to be examined for damage caused by micro metors and the like and repaired if nessasary.

The shuttle and many sattelites move at speeds unthought of in the atmosphere and actualy move faster than the earth turns.

Spacecraft to not explode in a vacuum because they are built to withstand the pressure or lack of it, just like planes that fly at higher altitudes, Being built for the environment is the same reason subs don't implode as great depths under water.

Earth is actualy in a rather dusty portion of the solarsystem, even our best space telescopes are hindered by this dust. The next generation of space telescopes planned will actualy have orbits that take them out of the dust ring we are in to get a better view.

As for the rest... It's getting to be nap time for me and if anyone else hasn't answered I'll try to again later.

 

[budoka]

The Mad Scientist network is very good place for all your questions on science: http://www.madsci.org/

The NASA site Nine Planets is a good source for information on space: http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/nineplanets.html

Briefly: gravity holds the Earth's atmosphere in place. There are particles in space (micrometeorites) but they would be travelling at the same relative speed as any other object orbitting the Earth, so collision would not be as catastrophic as you imagine. Outer space contains various gasses as well other elements, spread very thin (particularly outside the solar system).

 

[seebs]

Why would the upper atmosphere "blow away"? There's not much above it to blow it! "Blowing away" is a function of friction with the other air, not just of speed.

 

[Stormy]

is there anything is space? dust air etc?

The answer to this question is exciting. Scientists are studying the concept of “dark” matter. Do not be fooled by the name it is not thought to be truly dark ... but rather it is unable to be seen as of yet. So why do we think it may exist? Because of the speed of orbits that do not match the mass of said object. Either there is weight added by this "dark" matter or gravity is different than we calculate.

It goes further to say that this matter may be all around us here on Earth... even passing through our very beings!

 

[AtheistArchon]

It goes further to say that this matter may be all around us here on Earth... even passing through our very beings!

- Ehhh... I don't think I've ever heard of this.  Dark matter is simply inert material that gives off no radiation (no light, no X-rays, etc) and that is too far from any star to reflect light back at us.  Imagine a cluster of cold rocks and dust in space, and no star close by to illuminate it all.

 

[Tinker Grey]

Here is a Scientific American Article defining Dark Matter, or at least the ideas of it.

 

[Rising_Suns]

how fast does the earth spin?

1,000 mph

how fast does the outher atmosphere spin?

this question cannot be answered directly. The earth is a solid spinning mass. The atmosphere is gas. The friction between the earth and the atmosphere causes the atmosphere closest to the earth to move along with the earth at a similair velocity. The further you go from earth, the less effect the rotation of the earth has on the rotation of the atmosphere. The plot of altitude vs. velocity is a parabolic relationship, not linear, not constant.

is there anything (in) space? dust air etc?

of course. Ever heard of meteors, or shooting stars? Are they are are rocks coming from space into our atmosphere and burning up in the process. There is no air in space, as it is a vacuum, but there is plenty of matter. And all this matter is on route to the location of greatest gravitational pull. Nothing in this reality is motionless. A straight line does not exist.