The atmosphere and oceans are so small in comparison to the overall earth it is comparable to a film of water on a billiard ball. Even all the mighty oceans only make up 1/4000 of the earth’s total mass. The scale height of the atmosphere is about 8.5 km.[8] Whereas the radius of the earth is 6,371.0km[3] in other words the earth is more than 1000 times bigger than the atmosphere. The third rock from the sun contains around it a thin layer of water, gases and vapour at a temperature of between 89°C to 57.7 °C (mean = 14°C). Within this exists all of the known life in the universe and all that most of us holds dear.