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Old March 25th 07, 05:56 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Chris L Peterson
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Posts: 10,007
Default Where atmospheric Nitrogen comes from?

On Sat, 24 Mar 2007 20:04:10 -0800 (PST), (Brian Tung)
wrote:

I *think*, but don't know for sure, that it's basically too inert to
get absorbed, too massive to leak into outer space.


It's not _that_ inert. N2 is always being removed from the atmosphere by
various nitrogen fixation processes. Other processes are converting
nitrates to free N2. Nitrogen, oxygen, and CO2 are at their present
concentrations because they are maintained there by active processes,
both biological and geological.

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Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com