The ozone is a thin layer of atmosphere that protects us from the sun. It wraps all the way around the Earth, about 10 to 30 miles straight up. From the beginning of time, the ozone has blocked the sun's most dangerous ultraviolet rays from reaching us. It continues to do so even today. Each ozone molecule is made up of three small oxygen atoms that act like a safety net to catch most of the UV rays and keep them from getting down to the Earth's surface. There's been a problem in the last few decades though. The ozone layer is being depleted with the higher usage of products that emit chlorofluorocarbons, or CFC's. Right now, only a small region of Antarctica is actually covered by ozone because such a large hole is forming over the area. The ozone layer is thinning even over more heavily populated areas like North America & Australia.
