Future planets...

[Tom K.]

I have this thing in my head for a while now...

Is it possible for a planet to have a thicker atmosphere higher up and thinner at the surface?

It would be a planet in another solar-system and would make researching the atmosphere of a planet before trying to land on it more important.

[Deadpangod3]

Its thicker at the surface because of more gravity, its like in the sun or the ocean, the deeper you go, the more the preasure

[Warscribe]

i don't think thats physically possible, since mass (and therefore, atoms) will always be dragged towards the center of gravity (or rotation), the higher the (atom) mass, the closer to the center it gets. You should look up Venus' athmospehere, because it has some really weird effects. (the outer athmosphere is basically considered 'habitable', except for the lack of oxygen, the athmosphere benath that is hell. Just Hell.)

[Richy teh space man]

It's an interesting idea but like others have said it wouldn't be possible for this to occur naturally.

Unnaturally however..

[ThatBum]

The components of the atmosphere are going to stratify based on density, no real way of getting around that...

[Aladran]

It the fluid thermodynamic.

Less dense matter "float" on the denser one.

So it's a physic Law.

[Nikolai]

How about a planet with a depression in it, with some material in the depression that is undergoing radioactive decay to form a gas that is being released from the rocks? So within the depression, there's an atmosphere. Outside it, though, there's nothing. (So if you're willing to go in a hole, you can use a parachute to slow your descent. Otherwise, you need rockets.)

[ThatBum]

Yeah I was just thinking of that. That's similar to something I learned in organic chemistry, a thermal inversion.

[redmario14]

So there would be one easy place to land, and everywhere else would be hard to land on?

[Dr. Muttonstache]

Everybody knows the next planet is going to be Binbin.