Question

The following images show the four terrestrial planets in our solar system (not to scale). Rank these planets from left to right based on the atmospheric pressure at the surface, from highest to lowest.

Answer 1

Answer:

Venus, Earth, Mars, Mercury

Explanation:

The atmospheric pressure is determined by the gravitational attraction of the planet over the atmosphere.

Since the gravitational force is defined as:

$F = G\frac{m1m2}{r^{2}}$ (1)

Notice from equation 1, how the gravitational force depends on the masses of the two objects that are interacting and the distance to the square between them.

For this particular case, m1 is the mass of the planet and m2 is the mass of the gasses in the atmosphere. While the r is the distance between those two.

Venus has a more dense atmosphere and than the Earth, so it has a higher atmospheric pressure. The same case can be seen for the Earth and Mars.

Mercury is the one with the lower atmospheric pressure since it has a thin atmosphere as a consequence of his small size.