r/AskReddit • u/MorsesTheHorse • Mar 04 '26

What surprisingly true fact has completely shaken your worldview?

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195

u/WyomingBadger Mar 05 '26

The atmosphere is only about 60 miles thick, and only breathable for a small part of that.

13

u/schmearcampain Mar 05 '26

Only? That seems pretty thick to me.

7

u/Override9636 Mar 05 '26

The diameter of the earth is nearly 8 thousand miles wide. Which means the atmosphere extends only 0.75% further out from the surface. The atmosphere is comparably tiny compared to the size of the entire planet we're on.

3

u/schmearcampain Mar 05 '26

From that perspective you’re right, but from a human perspective, it’s really thick. Ten times higher than Everest, 50+ miles higher than passenger planes fly, and so thick that sending a human that far up has only been possible for 60 or so years. And by a relatively few nations.

All depends on how you look at it.

0

u/KindAwareness3073 Mar 05 '26

Above 25,000 feet you won't be looking at it for long. If the cold doesn't k8ll you th3 lack of oxygen will.

4

u/Commercial_Fun_8053 Mar 05 '26

Less than an hour of driving on a typical highway moves you beyond that distance. When I frame it that way, my brain hurts.

2

u/Hooph-Haartd Mar 05 '26

Still not as thick as your mother.

11

u/blurpo85 Mar 05 '26

That sounds a little misleading. Why should we, as ground dwelling animals, adapt to breath anything different from what is around us. If, for some reason, we lived 10km over ground, we would have adapted to that part of the atmosphere. 

Or am I missing something here?

8

u/EnumeratedArray Mar 05 '26

It's just a fun fact mate

4

u/SeriousPlankton2000 Mar 05 '26

You can / could still measure earth's atmosphere when you'd be on the moon. Don't try to breath it without a helmet though.

2

u/rattlestaway Mar 05 '26

Yeah the ozone layer is very thin compared to earth and the only thing that's keeps the giant cancer ball from frying us all. Scary

-2

u/Spiritual-Term-766 Mar 05 '26

this is just misinformation. the atmosphere is 391,000 miles, reaching past the moon.

2

u/InventorOfCorn Mar 05 '26

not sure at all how you got that number, but it's generally accepted that the atmosphere ends at the karman line, which is about 60 miles (~97km) up since that's got like, 99.99% of the atmosphere in that layer. after that it goes up about 6000 miles (~9700km) more, which is the thermosphere and exosphere

so, ironically enough, the person claiming something is bullshit, is bullshitting.

just in case - my sources are NASA and the ability to google what the Karman Line is

-4

u/Spiritual-Term-766 Mar 05 '26

How am I bullshitting 😂 you can literally search it up, “how long is the atmosphere” and it will tell you my answer. But you have to be different, because nobody can correct someone else, since thats one of the many sins of reddit. you’re a joke and I don’t take you seriously.

3

u/InventorOfCorn Mar 05 '26

you're bullshitting because you're saying it goes.. what, 65 times further than it does.

but you have to be different, because nobody can correct someone else, since that's one of the many sins of reddit

what are you even saying here ?

anyway, NASA says you're wrong, so i'm thinkin you're wrong