Photochemistry in Terrestrial Exoplanet Atmospheres II: H2S and SO2 Photochemistry in Anoxic Atmospheres

TL;DR

This study models sulfur chemistry in terrestrial exoplanet atmospheres, revealing that H2S and SO2 are short-lived, making direct detection difficult, but their presence influences aerosol formation detectable via spectral features.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive photochemical and spectral analysis of sulfur gases in various exoplanet atmospheres, highlighting their short lifetimes and impact on haze formation.

Findings

H2S and SO2 are chemically short-lived in most atmospheres.

Detecting surface sulfur emission directly is unlikely without extremely high emission rates.

Sulfur emissions lead to haze formation, affecting observable spectral features.

Abstract

Sulfur gases are common components in the volcanic and biological emission on Earth, and are expected to be important input gases for atmospheres on terrestrial exoplanets. We study the atmospheric composition and the spectra of terrestrial exoplanets with sulfur compounds (i.e., H2S and SO2) emitted from their surfaces. We use a comprehensive one-dimensional photochemistry model and radiative transfer model to investigate the sulfur chemistry in atmospheres ranging from reducing to oxidizing. The most important finding is that both H2S and SO2 are chemically short-lived in virtually all types of atmospheres on terrestrial exoplanets, based on models of H2, N2, and CO2 atmospheres. This implies that direct detection of surface sulfur emission is unlikely, as their surface emission rates need to be extremely high (>1000 times Earth's volcanic sulfur emission) for these gases to build up to a detectable level. We also find that sulfur compounds emitted from the surface lead to photochemical formation of elemental sulfur and sulfuric acid in the atmosphere, which would condense to form aerosols if saturated. For terrestrial exoplanets in the habitable zone of Sun-like stars or M stars, Earth-like sulfur emission rates result in optically thick haze composed of elemental sulfur in reducing H2-dominated atmospheres for a wide range of particle diameters (0.1-1 micron), which is assumed as a free parameter in our simulations. In oxidized atmospheres composed of N2 and CO2, optically thick haze, composed of elemental sulfur aerosols (S8) or sulfuric acid aerosols (H2SO4), will form if the surface sulfur emission is 2 orders of magnitude more than the volcanic sulfur emission of Earth. Although direct detection of H2S and SO2 by their spectral features is unlikely, their emission might be inferred by observing aerosol-related features in reflected light with future generation space telescopes.