Biography
The Kármán line lies at an altitude of 100 km (62.1 miles) above the Earth's sea level, and is commonly used to define the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space.
The line was named after Theodore von Kármán, a Hungarian-American engineer and physicist who was active primarily in the fields of aeronautics and astronautics. He first calculated that around this altitude the Earth's atmosphere becomes too thin for aeronautical purposes (because any vehicle at this altitude would have to travel faster than orbital velocity in order to derive sufficient aerodynamic lift from the atmosphere to support itself). Also, there is an abrupt increase in atmospheric temperature and interaction with solar radiation.
The Karman Line is also on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/karmanlinethe
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