• Sulfur ‘Spices’ Alien Atmospheres (Johns Hopkins)

From the far off corners of the universe, we now jump to research about possible life right here in our own universe. One of the hottest topics in Exoplanet research right now is modelling planetary atmospheres and trying to sort what molecules may and may not signify the presence of life. In a new paper in the journal Nature, the Horst Lab at JHU explores the impact of sulfur. This element effects the chemistry of many worlds in our solar system, including Earth, Venus, and even Jupiter, and it plays an essential role in the chemistry of life, as an ingredient in several amino acids and enzymes. It is thought sulfur could play a role in the formation of life, and finding it in an alien atmosphere could point at a location for life. 

According to lead author Chao He, “We found that just a small presence of sulfur in the atmosphere, less than 2%, can have major impacts on what, and how many, haze particles are formed. This entirely changes what scientists should look for and expect when they examine atmospheres on planets beyond our solar system.”

This is really cool research that involved simulating planetary atmospheres in a physical laboratory instead of just modelling things in software. There is a lot going on in this work, and we’re going to reach out to this team and see if they can come on to discuss this work on a future date.