Life on Earth Without the Atmosphere: What Would Happen?

[Thallium]

I was unsure of where to post this so that it would get attention.
I am preparing a short lecutre about the Earth's atmosphere and I need to know the following(which I have not found answers to elsewhere):

How would be experience standing on Earth without an atmosphere? Would we be totally blinded by the sun? Would stars be visible any longer or yet more clear?

How much time would it take before we, by the radiation, developed all cancer-types we know of and died?

How would be experience night compared to day?

 

[Chi Meson]

It would be a lot like standing on the Moon. There are pictures.

 

[Artman]

There is a similar thread on the effects of removing a helmet in space in the general physics forum.

Without the pressure provided by our atmosphere, all of our bodily fluids would boil, we would dehydrate very quickly, our skin would blister almost instantly from exposure to nearly 250 degree F temperature during the day or freeze at extremely low temperatures at night (not quite as low as in space because of the heat radiating off the superheated earth), If our magnetic field was gone as well, we would fry from the radiation before developing cancer.

 

[Thallium]

That is interesting. Thanks, Artman. Can the magnetosphere be counted as a part of the atmosphere? Do you think it is worth mentioning in the lecture?

 

[Artman]

There are theories that if we should lose the magnetosphere the atmosphere, and water would be ripped away by solar wind. This is believed to be a reason why Mars lost what appears to be large amounts of water.