The Short Answer:
What is Earth’s atmosphere?
Earth’s atmosphere is similar to a jacket for our planet. It surrounds our planet, keeps us warm, gives us oxygen to breathe, and it is where our weather happens. Earth’s atmosphere has six layers: the troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere, the thermosphere, the ionosphere, and the exosphere.
A jacket for the planet
Earth is a great planet to live on because it has a wonderful atmosphere around it. This jacket of gases does a lot for us. It keeps us warm, it gives us oxygen to breathe, and it’s where our weather happens.
The atmosphere surrounds our planet like the peel of an orange. But it’s not the same everywhere. It has different layers with different qualities.
One atmosphere, many layers
Earth’s atmosphere has six different layers. They go from the ground all the way to outer space. To learn more about each layer of the atmosphere, click the images below.
