Tracing the Inner Edge of the Habitable Zone with Sulfur Chemistry
arXiv:2501.17948 · doi:10.1126/sciadv.adp8105
Abstract
The circumstellar liquid-water habitable zone guides our search for potentially inhabited exoplanets, but remains observationally untested. We show that the inner edge of the habitable zone can now be mapped among exoplanets using their lack of surface water, which, unlike the presence of water, can be unambiguously revealed by atmospheric sulfur species. Using coupled climate-chemistry modelling we find that the observability of sulfur-gases on exoplanets depends critically on the ultraviolet (UV) flux of their host star, a property with wide variation: most M-dwarfs have a low UV flux and thereby allow the detection of sulfur-gases as a tracer of dry planetary surfaces; however, the UV flux of Trappist-1 may be too high for sulfur to disambiguate uninhabitable from habitable surfaces on any of its planets. We generalise this result to show how a population-level search for sulfur-chemistry on M-dwarf planets can be used to empirically define the Habitable Zone in the near-future.
Published in Science Advances
References in corpus (45)
- Extreme Water Loss and Abiotic O Buildup On Planets Throughout the Habitable Zones of M Dwarfs
- petitRADTRANS: a Python radiative transfer package for exoplanet characterization and retrieval
- Atmospheric Retrieval for Super-Earths: Uniquely Constraining the Atmospheric Composition with Transmission Spectroscopy
- Early Release Science of the Exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRSpec G395H
- Photochemically-produced SO in the atmosphere of WASP-39b
- Thermal emission from the Earth-sized exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 b using JWST
- Abiotic oxygen-dominated atmospheres on terrestrial habitable zone planets
- Retrieving scattering clouds and disequilibrium chemistry in the atmosphere of HR 8799e
- No thick carbon dioxide atmosphere on the rocky exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 c
- Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE): I. Improved exoplanet detection yield estimates for a large mid-infrared space-interferometer mission
- Revealing the Mysteries of Venus: The DAVINCI Mission
- High Tide or Riptide on the Cosmic Shoreline? A Water-Rich Atmosphere or Stellar Contamination for the Warm Super-Earth GJ~486b from JWST Observations
- Venusian Habitable Climate Scenarios: Modeling Venus through time and applications to slowly rotating Venus-Like Exoplanets
- A coupled model of episodic warming, oxidation and geochemical transitions on early Mars
- The Habitable Zones of Pre-Main-Sequence Stars
- A JWST transmission spectrum of a nearby Earth-sized exoplanet
- Hydrogen Cyanide in Nitrogen-Rich Atmospheres of Rocky Exoplanets
- On the Frequency of Potential Venus Analogs from Kepler Data
- Double Trouble: Two Transits of the Super-Earth GJ 1132 b Observed with JWST NIRSpec G395H
- Predicting the Extreme Ultraviolet Radiation Environment of Exoplanets Around Low-Mass Stars: the TRAPPIST-1 System
- Sulphur dioxide in the mid-infrared transmission spectrum of WASP-39b
- Distinguishing oceans of water from magma on mini-Neptune K2-18b
- Detecting Ocean Glint on Exoplanets Using Multiphase Mapping
- A Statistical Comparative Planetology Approach to the Hunt for Habitable Exoplanets and Life Beyond the Solar System
- The Mega-MUSCLES Spectral Energy Distribution Of TRAPPIST-1
- Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE): V. Diagnostic potential of a mid-infrared space-interferometer for studying Earth analogs
- Predictions for Observable Atmospheres of Trappist-1 Planets from a Fully Coupled Atmosphere-Interior Evolution Model
- Carbonate-Silicate Cycle Predictions of Earth-like Planetary Climates and Testing the Habitable Zone Concept
- Production of Ammonia Makes Venusian Clouds Habitable and Explains Observed Cloud-Level Chemical Anomalies
- Thermodynamic and Energetic Limits on Continental Silicate Weathering Strongly Impact the Climate and Habitability of Wet, Rocky Worlds
- Early Insights for Atmospheric Retrievals of Exoplanets using JWST Transit Spectroscopy
- Growth and evolution of secondary volcanic atmospheres: I. Identifying the geological character of hot rocky planets
- Venus Life Finder Missions Motivation and Summary
- Water Condensation Zones around Main Sequence Stars
- The Demographics of Terrestrial Planets in the Venus Zone
- A revised lower estimate of ozone columns during Earth's oxygenated history
- A mirage of the cosmic shoreline: Venus-like clouds as a statistical false positive for exoplanet atmospheric erosion
- Bioverse: The Habitable Zone Inner Edge Discontinuity as an Imprint of Runaway Greenhouse Climates on Exoplanet Demographics
- A mineralogical reason why all exoplanets cannot be equally oxidising
- Large Interferometer For Exoplanets (LIFE): IX. Assessing the Impact of Clouds on Atmospheric Retrievals at Mid-Infrared Wavelengths with a Venus-Twin Exoplanet
- Growth and Evolution of Secondary Volcanic Atmospheres: II. The Importance of Kinetics
- Atmospheric carbon depletion as a tracer of water oceans and biomass on temperate terrestrial exoplanets
- How likely are Snowball episodes near the inner edge of the habitable zone?
- Proposed energy-metabolisms cannot explain the atmospheric chemistry of Venus
- A Statistical Comparative Planetology Approach to Maximize the Scientific Return of Future Exoplanet Characterization Efforts
Cited by in corpus (4)
- Constraining exoplanet interiors using observations of their atmospheres
- Planetary albedo is limited by the above-cloud atmosphere: Implications for sub-Neptune climate
- The atmospheres of rocky exoplanets III. Using atmospheric spectra to constrain surface rock composition
- Rethinking Habitability using Biogenic Precursors: Formaldehyde in Millimeter Molecular Clouds of the Inner Galaxy