Investigation
Does a solid firmament or dome physically cover Earth?
Challenges
Measured atmospheric layers show progressively thinning gas rather than a rigid material boundary at the top of the atmosphere.
Canonical Source · government document
Earth's Atmosphere: A Multi-layered Cake
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Evidence context
How this source is used
Evidence roles describe what this source helps establish inside each Investigation. They are local to that use, not permanent labels attached to the publication itself.
Investigation
Would the vacuum of space strip away Earth's atmosphere?
Challenges
Atmospheric observations and hydrostatic physics show pressure and density decreasing continuously with altitude rather than remaining high up to a sharp atmosphere-vacuum boundary.
Qualifies
NASA describes the exosphere as a sparse region that gradually merges into space and notes that some upper-atmosphere particles can escape, preserving the real process without implying rapid loss of the whole atmosphere.
Subject families