Let's understand the difference between temperature and heat. The sky-high temperatures in the thermosphere are due to the unfiltered light the layer gets from the sun. The atmosphere would actually get hotter again if Icarus kept flying higher.Īptly named the thermosphere, this layer in the atmosphere, between 50 to 440 miles, can reach temperatures as high as 4,500 F. This is as cold as things can get in our atmosphere.īy international standards, at this point of the journey, Icarus would be considered to be in space, reaching the orbit of the International Space Station thousands of years before modern astronauts.īut Ovid's imagination was not entirely wrong. What if he went even higher? Higher than spy planes and weather balloons and that one Red Bull guy who parachuted off from the edge of space? Almost in spaceĪssuming that Icarus' get-up included a rocket, he might have gone higher into the mesosphere, where a shooting star could have burned up next to him, melting his wings.īut the Roman poet Ovid said the sun melted his wings, not flames from a flyby meteor, so let's stick with that.Īs Icarus ascended through the mesosphere, which lies between 31 to 50 miles above sea level, the temperature would drop gradually once more, down to as low as -150 F. At the top of the stratosphere, at around 31 miles, the temperature would top off at a balmy 5 F.įar from enough to melt an ice cube, never mind wax. So, counterintuitively, as Icarus flew higher above the troposphere, the temperature would have started to rise as he got closer he got to the ozone layer. This energy absorbed by ozone is then radiated back into the air above and below the ozone layer, warming it up. Made up of the weird stuff that is O3, the ozone layer absorbs more than 95% of UV light from the sun. Luckily, the international community at the time was able to come together and ban a long list of chemicals, which helped the ozone recover in the ensuing years. You may have heard of the big ozone hole we opened over Antarctica in the '80s. What if the special wings designed by Daedalus had allowed Icarus to fly even higher than the birds? Fine, we'll go higher.Īt about 20 miles above sea level lies the ozone layer - the sunglasses of our planet that protect us from skin cancer. So it was far more likely for Icarus to freeze to death than to have his wings melted. The temperatures would still have been going down at this level, hovering between -40 to -70 F depending on the local weather. That's why we have snowcapped mountains and not snow-footed mountains.Ĭonsidering the highest-flying bird, the Ruppell's griffon vulture, can reach a maximum height of only 37,000 feet, we can safely guess that this is about the point where the thin air would have made it difficult for Icarus to use his wings. If you've ever been on a mountain, you may have noticed that the higher you climb, the colder it gets.Īs Icarus ascended through this part of the atmosphere, known as the troposphere, the temperature would have dropped by an average of 3-4 degrees Fahrenheit for every 1,000 feet he climbed. So how high did Icarus have to fly for his wings to melt? From the ground up to cruising altitude The sun melted his waxy wings, and he plummeted to his death in the Aegean Sea. He built wings for himself and his son to escape and fly back home.īut his son, Icarus, being a symbol of youthful rebellion, ignored his father's advice and flew too close to the sun. (Inside Science) - Daedalus was a tragic genius from Ancient Greek mythology who was exiled to an island, where the king later imprisoned him.
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