Search

Intense bombardment of solar system planets in the immediate aftermath of protoplanetary disk dissipation has played a key role in their atmospheric evolution. During this epoch, energetic collisions will have removed significant masses of gas from rocky planet atmospheres. Noble gases are powerful tracers of this early atmospheric history, xenon in particular, which on Mars and Earth shows significant depletions and isotopic fractionations relative to the lighter noble gasses. To evaluate the effect of impacts on the loss and fractionation of xenon, we measure its ionization and recombination efficiency by laser shock and apply these constraints to model impact-driven atmospheric escape on Mars. We demonstrate that impact bombardment within the first $200$ to $300\,\text{Myr}$ of solar system history generates the observed Xe depletion and isotope fractionation of the modern martian atmosphere. This process may also explain the Xe depletion recorded in Earth's deep mantle and provides a latest date for the timing of giant planet instability.

White dwarf atmospheres are frequently polluted by material from their own planetary systems. Absorption features from Ca, Mg, Fe and other elements can provide unique insights into the provenance of this exoplanetary material, with their relative abundances being used to infer accretion of material with core- or mantle-like composition. Across the population of white dwarfs, the distribution of compositions reveals the prevalence of geological and collisional processing across exoplanetary systems. By predicting the distribution of compositions in three evolutionary scenarios, this work assesses whether they can explain current observations. We consider evolution in an asteroid belt analog, in which collisions between planetary bodies that formed an iron core lead to core- or mantle-rich fragments. We also consider layer-by-layer accretion of individual bodies, such that the apparent composition of atmospheric pollution changes during the accretion of a single body. Finally, we consider that compositional spread is due to random noise. We find that the distribution of Ca, Fe and Mg in a sample of 202 cool DZs is consistent with the random noise scenario, although 7 individual systems show strong evidence of core-mantle differentiation from additional elements and/or low noise levels. Future surveys which detect multiple elements in each of a few hundred white dwarfs, with well understood biases, have the potential to confidently distinguish between the three models., Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

This review is focused on describing the logic by which we make predictions of exoplanetary compositions and mineralogies, and how these processes could lead to compositional diversity among rocky exoplanets. We use these predictions to determine the sensitivity of present-day and future observations to detecting compositional differences between rocky exoplanets and the four terrestrial planets. First, we review data on stellar abundances and infer how changes in composition may manifest themselves in the expected bulk compositions of rocky exoplanets (section 2). Converting this information in mass-radius relationships requires calculation of the stable mineral assemblages at a given temperature-pressure-composition (T-P-X), an exercise we describe in section 3. Should the planet be hot enough to engender partial melting of the mantle, then these liquids are likely to rise to the surface and erupt to form planetary crusts; the possible compositional and mineralogical variability of which we examine in section 4. Finally, the expected spectroscopic responses of such crusts are examined in section 5., Comment: Chapter 8 accepted for publication in the Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry (RiMG) Volume 90 on "Exoplanets: Compositions, Mineralogy, and Evolution" edited by Natalie Hinkel, Keith Putirka, and Siyi Xu; 40 pages, 11 figures, and 3 equations

Giant impacts can generate transient hydrogen-rich atmospheres, reducing atmospheric carbon. The reduced carbon will form hazes that rain out onto the surface and can become incorporated into the crust. Once heated, a large fraction of the carbon would be converted into graphite. The result is that local regions of the Hadean crust were plausibly saturated with graphite. We explore the consequences of such a crust for a prebiotic surface hydrothermal vent scenario. We model a surface vent fed by nitrogen-rich volcanic gas from high-temperature magmas passing through graphite-saturated crust. We consider this occurring at pressures of 1-1000 bar and temperatures of 1500-1700 degC. The equilibrium with graphite purifies the left-over gas, resulting in substantial quantities of nitriles (0.1% HCN and 1 ppm HC3N) and isonitriles (0.01% HNC) relevant for prebiotic chemistry. We use these results to predict gas-phase concentrations of methyl isonitrile of ~ 1 ppm. Methyl isocyanide can participate in the non-enzymatic activation and ligation of the monomeric building blocks of life, and surface, or shallow, hydrothermal environments provide its only known equilibrium geochemical source., Comment: 26 pages, 17 figures, 2 tables. Accepted for publication in Life (MDPI Journal)

Earth's surface is deficient in available forms of many elements considered limiting for prebiotic chemistry. In contrast, many extraterrestrial rocky objects are rich in these same elements. Limiting prebiotic ingredients may, therefore, have been delivered by exogenous material; however, the mechanisms by which exogeneous material may be reliably and non-destructively supplied to a planetary surface remains unclear. Today, the flux of extraterrestrial matter to Earth is dominated by fine-grained cosmic dust. Although this material is rarely discussed in a prebiotic context due to its delivery over a large surface area, concentrated cosmic dust deposits are known to form on Earth today due to the action of sedimentary processes. Here we combine empirical constraints on dust sedimentation with dynamical simulations of dust formation and planetary accretion to show that localized sedimentary deposits of cosmic dust could have accumulated in arid environments on early Earth, in particular glacial settings that today produce cryoconite sediments. Our results challenge the widely held assumption that cosmic dust is incapable of fertilizing prebiotic chemistry. Cosmic dust deposits may have plausibly formed on early Earth and acted to fertilize prebiotic chemistry., Comment: 5 figures

Mildly irradiated mini-Neptunes have densities potentially consistent with them hosting substantial liquid water oceans (`Hycean' planets). The presence of CO2 and simultaneous absence of ammonia (NH3) in their atmospheres has been proposed as a fingerprint of such worlds. JWST observations of K2-18b, the archetypal Hycean, have found the presence of CO2 and the depletion of NH3 to <100 ppm; hence, it has been inferred that this planet may host liquid water oceans. In contrast, climate modelling suggests that many of these mini-Neptunes, including K2-18b, may likely be too hot to host liquid water. We propose a solution to this discrepancy between observation and climate modelling by investigating the effect of a magma ocean on the atmospheric chemistry of mini-Neptunes. We demonstrate that atmospheric NH3 depletion is a natural consequence of the high solubility of nitrogen species in magma at reducing conditions; precisely the conditions prevailing where a thick hydrogen envelope is in communication with a molten planetary surface. The magma ocean model reproduces the present JWST spectrum of K2-18b to < 3 sigma, suggesting this is as credible an explanation for current observations as the planet hosting a liquid water ocean. Spectral areas that could be used to rule out the magma ocean model include the >4um region, where CO2 and CO features dominate: Magma ocean models suggest a systematically lower CO2/CO ratio than estimated from free chemistry retrieval, indicating that deeper observations of this spectral region may be able to distinguish between oceans of liquid water and magma on mini-Neptunes., Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters; corrects error on y-axis of Figure 2

Volatile elements play a crucial role in the formation of planetary systems. Their abundance and distribution in protoplanetary disks provide vital insights into the connection between formation processes and the atmospheric composition of individual planets. Sulfur, being one of the most abundant elements in planet-forming environments, is of great significance, and now observable in exoplanets with JWST. However, planetary formation models currently lack vital knowledge regarding sulfur chemistry in protoplanetary disks. Developing a deeper understanding of the major volatile sulfur carriers in disks is essential to building models that can meaningfully predict planetary atmospheric composition, and reconstruct planetary formation pathways. In this work, we combine archival observations with new data from ALMA and APEX, covering a range of sulfur-bearing species/isotopologs. We interpret this data using the DALI thermo-chemical code, for which our model is highly refined and disk-specific. We find that volatile sulfur is heavily depleted from the cosmic value by a factor of 1000, with a disk-averaged abundance of S/H = 1e-8. We show that the gas-phase sulfur abundance varies radially by 3 orders of magnitude, with the highest abundances inside the inner dust ring and coincident with the outer dust ring at 150 to 230 au. Extracting chemical abundances from our models, we find OCS, H2CS, and CS to be the dominant molecular carriers in the gas phase. We also infer the presence of a substantial OCS ice reservoir. We relate our results to the potential atmospheric composition of planets in HD 100546, and the wider exoplanet population, Comment: Accepted in MNRAS (20/12/2023)

Large impacts onto young rocky planets may transform their compositions, creating highly reducing conditions at their surfaces and reintroducing highly siderophile metals to their mantles. Key to these processes is the availability of an impactor's chemically reduced core material (metallic iron). It is, therefore, important to constrain how much of an impactor's core remains accessible to a planet's mantle/surface, how much is sequestered to its core, and how much escapes. Here, we present 3D simulations of such impact scenarios using the shock physics code iSALE to determine the fate of impactor iron. iSALE's inclusion of material strength is vital in capturing the behavior of both solid and fluid components of the planet and thus characterizing iron sequestration to the core. We find that the mass fractions of impactor core material that accretes to the planet core ($f_{core}$) or escapes ($f_{esc}$) can be readily parameterized as a function of a modified specific impact energy, with $f_{core} > f_{esc}$ for a wide set of impacts. These results differ from previous works that do not incorporate material strength. Our work shows that large impacts can place substantial reducing impactor core material in the mantles of young rocky planets. Impact-generated reducing atmospheres may thus be common for such worlds. However, through escape and sequestration to a planet's core, large fractions of an impactor's core can be geochemically hidden from a planet's mantle. Consequently, geochemical estimates of late bombardments of planets based on mantle siderophile element abundances may be underestimates., Comment: Submitted July 25, 2023; Revised October 26, 2023; PSJ

As the characterization of exoplanet atmospheres proceeds, providing insights into atmospheric chemistry and composition, a key question is how much deeper into the planet we might be able to see from its atmospheric properties alone. For small planets with modest atmospheres and equilibrium temperatures, the first layer below the atmosphere will be their rocky surface. For such warm rocky planets, broadly Venus-like planets, the high temperatures and moderate pressures at the base of their atmospheres may enable thermochemical equilibrium between rock and gas. This links the composition of the surface to that of the observable atmosphere. Using an equilibrium chemistry code, we find a boundary in surface pressure-temperature space which simultaneously separates distinct mineralogical regimes and atmospheric regimes, potentially enabling inference of surface mineralogy from spectroscopic observations of the atmosphere. Weak constraints on the surface pressure and temperature also emerge. This regime boundary corresponds to conditions under which SO2 is oxidized and absorbed by calcium-bearing minerals in the crust, thus the two regimes reflect the sulphidation of the crust. The existence of these atmospheric regimes for Venus-like planets is robust to plausible changes in the elemental composition. Our results pave the way to the prospect of characterizing exoplanetary surfaces as new data for short period rocky planet atmospheres emerge., Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables. Accepted 17 Dec 2023 for publication in MNRAS

Understanding the co-evolution of complex life with Earth's geology is an enduring challenge. The rock record evidences remarkable correlations between changes in biology and the wider Earth system, yet cause and effect remain unclear. Here, we link the evolutionary history of eukaryotes with the rise and fall of carbonate rock fraction within continental crust - a key variable in controlling the efficiency of carbon drawdown during weathering, solid Earth degassing rates, and ultimately nutrient supply to life. We use geospatial database analyses to demonstrate a strongly non-linear growth and then collapse in Earth's continental crust carbonate reservoir. Biomineralisers reshaped Earth's surface in their image; armouring continental margins with carbonate platforms, such that the continental carbonate reservoir increased in size by 5-fold in under 100 Myr after the Cambrian Radiation of animal life. This Paleozoic carbonate revolution represents among the most dramatic crustal evolutionary events in Earth's history. The Permo-Triassic extinction event coupled to the rise of open ocean calcifiers initiated a steady decline in continental crustal carbonate content; one that still continues today, which unabated would produce Precambrian-style crustal carbonate distributions in around 500-1000 Myr. Our results demonstrate strongly non-linear crustal evolution after the rise of the complex Phanerozoic biosphere. This outcome suggests that complex life may generate unique biogeochemical trajectories on otherwise geologically similar worlds, posing a new challenge in the hunt for life beyond Earth.

White dwarfs that have accreted planetary materials provide a powerful tool to probe the interiors and formation of exoplanets. In particular, the high Fe/Si ratio of some white dwarf pollutants suggests that they are fragments of bodies that were heated enough to undergo large-scale melting and iron core formation. In the solar system, this phenomenon is associated with bodies that formed early and so had short-lived radionuclides to power their melting, and/or grew large. However, if the planetary bodies accreted by white dwarfs formed during the (pre)-main sequence lifetime of the host star, they will have potentially been exposed to a second era of heating during the star's giant branches. This work aims to quantify the effect of stellar irradiation during the giant branches on planetary bodies by coupling stellar evolution to thermal and orbital evolution of planetesimals. We find that large-scale melting, sufficient to form an iron core, can be induced by stellar irradiation, but only in close-in small bodies: planetesimals with radii $\lesssim$ 30 km originally within $\sim$ 2 AU orbiting a 1$-$3$\,M_{\odot}$ host star with solar metallicity. Most of the observed white dwarf pollutants are too massive to be explained by the accretion of these small planetesimals that are melted during the giant branches. Therefore, we conclude that those white dwarfs that have accreted large masses of materials with enhanced or reduced Fe/Si remain an indicator of planetesimal's differentiation shortly after formation, potentially linked to radiogenic heating., Comment: 19 pages, 18 figures

From core to atmosphere, the oxidation states of elements in a planet shape its character. Oxygen fugacity (fO$_2$) is one parameter indicating these likely oxidation states. The ongoing search for atmospheres on rocky exoplanets benefits from understanding the plausible variety of their compositions, which depends strongly on their oxidation states -- and if derived from interior outgassing, on the fO$_2$ at the top of their silicate mantles. This fO$_2$ must vary across compositionally-diverse exoplanets, but for a given planet its value is unconstrained insofar as it depends on how iron (the dominant multivalent element) is partitioned between its 2+ and 3+ oxidation states. Here we focus on another factor influencing how oxidising a mantle is -- a factor modulating fO$_2$ even at fixed Fe$^{3+}$/Fe$^{2+}$ -- the planet's mineralogy. Only certain minerals (e.g., pyroxenes) incorporate Fe$^{3+}$. Having such minerals in smaller mantle proportions concentrates Fe$^{3+}$, increasing fO$_2$. Mineral proportions change within planets according to pressure, and between planets according to bulk composition. Constrained by observed host star refractory abundances, we calculate a minimum fO$_2$ variability across exoplanet mantles, of at least two orders of magnitude, due to mineralogy alone. This variability is enough to alter by a hundredfold the mixing ratio of SO$_2$ directly outgassed from these mantles. We further predict that planets orbiting high-Mg/Si stars are more likely to outgas detectable amounts of SO$_2$ and H$_2$O; and for low-Mg/Si stars, detectable CH$_4$, all else equal. Even absent predictions of Fe$^{3+}$ budgets, general insights can be obtained into how oxidising an exoplanet's mantle is., Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The search for biosignatures on exoplanets connects the fields of biology and biochemistry to astronomical observation, with the hope that we might detect evidence of active biological processes on worlds outside the solar system. Here we focus on a complementary aspect of exoplanet characterisation connecting astronomy to prebiotic chemistry: the search for molecules associated with the origin of life, prebiosignatures. Prebiosignature surveys in planetary atmospheres offer the potential to both constrain the ubiquity of life in the galaxy and provide important tests of current prebiotic syntheses outside of the laboratory setting. Here, we quantify the minimum abundance of identified prebiosignature molecules that would be required for detection by transmission spectroscopy using JWST. We consider prebiosignatures on five classes of terrestrial planet: an ocean planet, a volcanic planet, a post-impact planet, a super-Earth, and an early Earth analogue. Using a novel modelling and detection test pipeline, with simulated JWST noise, we find the detection thresholds of hydrogen cyanide (HCN), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), cyanoacetylene (HC3N), ammonia (NH3), methane (CH4), acetylene (C2H2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitric oxide (NO), formaldehyde (CH2O), and carbon monoxide (CO) in a variety of low mean molecular weight (<5) atmospheres. We test the dependence of these detection thresholds on M dwarf target star and the number of observed transits, finding that a modest number of transits (1-10) are required to detect prebiosignatures in numerous candidate planets, including TRAPPIST-1e with a high mean molecular weight atmosphere. We find that the NIRSpec G395M/H instrument is best suited for detecting most prebiosignatures., Comment: 28 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in AJ

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, and a primary target for mitigating climate change in the short-term future due to its relatively short atmospheric lifetime and greater ability to trap heat in Earth's atmosphere compared to carbon dioxide. Top-down observations of atmospheric methane are possible via drone and aircraft surveys as well as satellites such as the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI). Recent work has begun to apply the divergence method to produce regional methane emission rate estimates. Here we show that when the divergence method is applied to spatially incomplete observations of methane, it can result in negatively biased time-averaged regional emission rates. We show that this effect can be counteracted by adopting a procedure in which daily advective fluxes of methane are time-averaged before the divergence method is applied. Using such a procedure with TROPOMI methane observations, we calculate yearly Permian emission rates of 3.1, 2.4 and 2.7 million tonnes per year for the years 2019 through 2021. We also show that highly-resolved plumes of methane can have negatively biased estimated emission rates by the divergence method due to the presence of turbulent diffusion in the plume, but this is unlikely to affect regional methane emission budgets constructed from TROPOMI observations of methane. The results from this work are expected to provide useful guidance for future implementations of the divergence method for emission rate estimation from satellite data -- be it for methane or other gaseous species in the atmosphere., Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, accepted at Environmental Research Letters

The elemental carbon-to-oxygen ratio (C/O) in the atmosphere of a giant planet is a promising diagnostic of that planet's formation history in a protoplanetary disk. Alongside efforts in the exoplanet community to measure C/O in planetary atmospheres, observational and theoretical studies of disks are increasingly focused on understanding how the gas-phase C/O varies both with radial location and between disks. This is mostly tied to the icelines of major volatile carriers such as CO and H2O. Using ALMA observations of CS and SO, we have unearthed evidence for an entirely novel type of C/O variation in the protoplanetary disk around HD 100546: an azimuthal variation from a typical, oxygen-dominated ratio (C/O=0.5) to a carbon-dominated ratio (C/O>1.0). We show that the spatial distribution and peculiar line kinematics of both CS and SO molecules can be well-explained by azimuthal variations in the C/O ratio. We propose a shadowing mechanism that could lead to such a chemical dichotomy. Our results imply that tracing the formation history of giant exoplanets using their atmospheric C/O ratios will need to take into account time-dependent azimuthal C/O variations in a planet's accretion zone., Comment: Accepted in Nature Astronomy

Photochemistry is a fundamental process of planetary atmospheres that regulates the atmospheric composition and stability. However, no unambiguous photochemical products have been detected in exoplanet atmospheres to date. Recent observations from the JWST Transiting Exoplanet Early Release Science Program found a spectral absorption feature at 4.05 $\mu$m arising from SO$_2$ in the atmosphere of WASP-39b. WASP-39b is a 1.27-Jupiter-radii, Saturn-mass (0.28 M$_J$) gas giant exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star with an equilibrium temperature of $\sim$1100 K. The most plausible way of generating SO$_2$ in such an atmosphere is through photochemical processes. Here we show that the SO$_2$ distribution computed by a suite of photochemical models robustly explains the 4.05 $\mu$m spectral feature identified by JWST transmission observations with NIRSpec PRISM (2.7$\sigma$) and G395H (4.5$\sigma$). SO$_2$ is produced by successive oxidation of sulphur radicals freed when hydrogen sulphide (H$_2$S) is destroyed. The sensitivity of the SO$_2$ feature to the enrichment of the atmosphere by heavy elements (metallicity) suggests that it can be used as a tracer of atmospheric properties, with WASP-39b exhibiting an inferred metallicity of $\sim$10$\times$ solar. We further point out that SO$_2$ also shows observable features at ultraviolet and thermal infrared wavelengths not available from the existing observations., Comment: 39 pages, 14 figures, accepted to be published in Nature

Volcanism is a major and long-term source of volatile elements such as C and H to Earth's atmosphere, likely has been to Venus's atmosphere, and may be for exoplanets. Models simulating volcanic growth of atmospheres often make one of two assumptions: either that atmospheric speciation is set by the high-temperature equilibrium of volcanism; or, that volcanic gases thermochemically re-equilibrate to the new, lower, temperature of the surface environment. In the latter case it has been suggested that volcanic atmospheres may create biosignature false positives. Here, we test the assumptions underlying such inferences by performing chemical kinetic calculations to estimate the relaxation timescale of volcanically-derived atmospheres to thermochemical equilibrium, in a simple 0D atmosphere neglecting photochemistry and reaction catalysis. We demonstrate that for planets with volcanic atmospheres, thermochemical equilibrium over geological timescales can only be assumed if the atmospheric temperature is above ~700K. Slow chemical kinetics at lower temperatures inhibit the relaxation of redox-sensitive species to low-temperature thermochemical equilibrium, precluding the production of two independent biosignatures through thermochemistry alone: 1. ammonia, and 2. the co-occurrence of CO$_2$ and CH$_4$ in an atmosphere in the absence of CO. This supports the use of both biosignatures for detecting life. Quenched at the high temperature of their degassing, volcanic gases also have speciations characteristic of those produced from a more oxidized mantle, if interpreted as being at thermochemical equilibrium. This therefore complicates linking atmospheres to the interiors of rocky exoplanets, even when their atmospheres are purely volcanic in origin., Comment: Accepted by JGR: Planets

Nominally anhydrous minerals in rocky planet mantles can sequester oceans of water as a whole, giving a constraint on bulk water inventories. Here we predict mantle water capacities from the thermodynamically-limited solubility of water in their constituent minerals. We report the variability of mantle water capacity due to (i) host star refractory element abundances that set mineralogy, (ii) realistic mantle temperature scenarios, and (iii) planet mass. We find that planets large enough to stabilise perovskite almost unfailingly have a dry lower mantle, topped by a high-water-capacity transition zone which may act as a bottleneck for water transport within the planet's interior. Because the pressure of the ringwoodite-perovskite phase boundary defining the lower mantle is roughly insensitive to planet mass, the relative contribution of the upper mantle reservoir will diminish with increasing planet mass. Large rocky planets therefore have disproportionately small mantle water capacities. In practice, our results would represent initial water concentration profiles in planetary mantles where their primordial magma oceans are water-saturated. We suggest that a considerable proportion of massive rocky planets' accreted water budgets would form surface oceans or atmospheric water vapour immediately after magma ocean solidification, possibly diminishing the likelihood of these planets hosting land. This work is a step towards understanding planetary deep water cycling, thermal evolution as mediated by rheology and melting, and the frequency of waterworlds., Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures; this version accepted for publication in MNRAS

In the Solar System short-lived radioisotopes, such as 26Al, played a crucial role during the formation planetary bodies by providing a significant additional source of heat. Notably, this led to early and large-scale melting and iron core formation in planetesimals and their loss of volatile elements, such as hydrogen and carbon. In the context exoplanetary systems, therefore, the prevalence of short-lived radioisotopes is key to interpreting the observed bulk volatile budget and atmospheric diversity among low-mass exoplanets. White dwarfs that have accreted planetary material provide a unique means to infer the frequency of iron core formation in extrasolar planetesimals, and hence the ubiquity of planetary systems forming with high short-lived radioisotope abundances. Here, we devise a quantitative method to infer the fraction of planetary systems enriched with shortlived radionuclides upon planetesimal formation from white dwarf data. We argue that the current evidence from white dwarfs point towards a significant fraction of exo-planetesimals having formed an iron core. Although the data may be explained by the accretion of exo-moon or Pluto-sized bodies that were able to differentiate due to gravitational potential energy release, our results suggest that the most likely explanation for the prevalence of differentiated material among polluted white dwarfs is that the Solar System is not unusual in being enriched in 26Al. The models presented here suggest a ubiquitous pathway for the enrichment of exoplanetary systems by short-lived radioisotopes, disfavouring short-lived radioisotope enrichment scenarios relying on rare chance encounters with single nearby supernovae, Wolf-Rayet or AGB stars., Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, accepted to MNRAS

Life in the clouds of Venus, if present in sufficiently high abundance, must be affecting the atmospheric chemistry. It has been proposed that abundant Venusian life could obtain energy from its environment using three possible sulfur energy-metabolisms. These metabolisms raise the possibility of Venus's enigmatic cloud-layer SO$_2$-depletion being caused by life. We here couple each proposed energy-metabolism to a photochemical-kinetics code and self-consistently predict the composition of Venus's atmosphere under the scenario that life produces the observed SO$_2$-depletion. Using this photo-bio-chemical kinetics code, we show that all three metabolisms can produce SO$_2$-depletions, but do so by violating other observational constraints on Venus's atmospheric chemistry. We calculate the maximum possible biomass density of sulfur-metabolising life in the clouds, before violating observational constraints, to be $\sim10^{-5}\,-\,10^{-3}\,{\rm mg\,m^{-3}}$. The methods employed are equally applicable to aerial biospheres on Venus-like exoplanets, planets that are optimally poised for atmospheric characterisation in the near future., Comment: Published in Nature Communications

The composition of forming planets is strongly affected by the protoplanetary disc's thermal structure. This thermal structure is predominantly set by dust radiative transfer and viscous (accretional) heating and can be impacted by gaps - regions of low dust and gas density that can occur when planets form. The effect of variations in dust surface density on disc temperature has been poorly understood until now. In this work, we use the radiative transfer code MCMax to model the 2D dust thermal structure with individual gaps corresponding to planets with masses of 0.1 M$_J$ - 5 M$_J$ and orbital radii of 3, 5, and 10 AU. Low dust opacity in the gap allows radiation to penetrate deeper into the disc and warm the midplane by up to 16 K, but only for gaps located in the region of the disc where stellar irradiation is the dominant source of heat (here, a$\gtrsim$4 AU). In viscously-heated regions (a$\lesssim$4 AU), the midplane of the gap is relatively cooler by up to 100 K. Outside of the gap, broad radial oscillations in heating and cooling are present due to changes in disc flaring. These thermal features affect local segregation of volatile elements (H$_2$O, CH$_4$, CO2, CO) between the dust and gas. We find that icelines experience dramatic shifts relative to gapless models: up to 6.5 AU towards the star and 4.3 AU towards the midplane. While quantitative predictions of iceline deviations will require more sophisticated models which include transport and sublimation/condensation kinetics, our results provide evidence that planet-induced iceline variations represent a potential feedback from the planet onto the composition of material it is accreting., Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. Accepted to MNRAS, published 20 April 2023

Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus and Sulfur (CHNOPS) play key roles in the origin and proliferation of life on Earth. Given the universality of physics and chemistry, not least the ubiquity of water as a solvent and carbon as a backbone of complex molecules, CHNOPS are likely crucial to most habitable worlds. To help guide and inform the search for potentially habitable and ultimately inhabited environments, we begin by summarizing the CHNOPS budget of various reservoirs on Earth, their role in shaping our biosphere, and their origins in the Solar Nebula. We then synthesize our current understanding of how these elements behave and are distributed in diverse astrophysical settings, tracing their journeys from synthesis in dying stars to molecular clouds, protoplanetary settings, and ultimately temperate rocky planets around main sequence stars. We end by identifying key branching points during this journey, highlighting instances where a forming planets' distribution of CHNOPS can be altered dramatically, and speculating about the consequences for the chemical habitability of these worlds., Comment: 39 pages, 7 figures; under review for publication as a chapter in Protostars and Planets VII (Editors: Shu-ichiro Inutsuka, Yuri Aikawa, Takayuki Muto, Kengo Tomida, and Motohide Tamura)

Topography on a wet rocky exoplanet could raise land above its sea level. Although land elevation is the product of many complex processes, the large-scale topographic features on any geodynamically-active planet are the expression of the convecting mantle beneath the surface. This so-called "dynamic topography" exists regardless of a planet's tectonic regime or volcanism; its amplitude, with a few assumptions, can be estimated via numerical simulations of convection as a function of the mantle Rayleigh number. We develop new scaling relationships for dynamic topography on stagnant lid planets using 2D convection models with temperature-dependent viscosity. These scalings are applied to 1D thermal history models to explore how dynamic topography varies with exoplanetary observables over a wide parameter space. Dynamic topography amplitudes are converted to an ocean basin capacity, the minimum water volume required to flood the entire surface. Basin capacity increases less steeply with planet mass than does the amount of water itself, assuming a water inventory that is a constant planetary mass fraction. We find that dynamically-supported topography alone could be sufficient to maintain subaerial land on Earth-size stagnant lid planets with surface water inventories of up to approximately $10^{-4}$ times their mass, in the most favourable thermal states. By considering only dynamic topography, which has ~1-km amplitudes on Earth, these results represent a lower limit to the true ocean basin capacity. Our work indicates that deterministic geophysical modelling could inform the variability of land propensity on low-mass planets., Comment: 33 pages, 9 figures, submitted to The Planetary Science Journal

The collision history of asteroids is an important archive of inner Solar System evolution. Evidence for these collisions is brought to Earth by meteorites, which can preserve impact-reset radioisotope mineral ages. However, as meteorites often preserve numerous mineral ages, their interpretation is controversial. Here, we combine analysis of phosphate U-Pb ages and mineral microtextures to construct a collision history for the highly shocked Chelyabinsk meteorite. We show that phosphate U-Pb ages in the meteorite are independent of thermal history at macro-to-microscales, correlating instead with phosphate microtexture. Isotopic data from pristine phosphate domains is largely concordant, whereas fracture-damaged domains universally display discordance. Combining both populations best constrains upper (4,473 +/- 11 Ma) and lower intercept (-9 +/- 55 Ma, i.e., within error of the present day) U-Pb ages for Chelyabinsk phosphates. We conclude that all phosphate U-Pb ages were completely reset during an ancient high energy collision. Fracture-damaged phosphate domains experienced further Pb-loss during mild collisional heating in the geologically recent past, and must be targeted to properly constrain a lower intercept age. Targeting textural sub-populations of phosphate grains can significantly improve the calculation and interpretation of U-Pb ages, permitting more robust reconstruction of both ancient and recent asteroidal collision histories.

The atmospheric chemical composition of a hot Jupiter can lead to insights into where in its natal protoplanetary disk it formed and its subsequent migration pathway. We use a 1-D chemical kinetics code to compute a suite of models across a range of elemental abundances to investigate the resultant abundances of key molecules in hot jupiter atmospheres. Our parameter sweep spans metallicities between 0.1x and 10x solar values for the C/H, O/H and N/H ratios, and equilibrium temperatures of 1000K and 2000K. We link this parameter sweep to the formation and migration models from previous works to predict connections between the atmospheric molecular abundances and formation pathways, for the molecules \ce{H2O}, \ce{CO}, \ce{CH4}, \ce{CO2}, \ce{HCN} and \ce{NH3}. We investigate atmospheric \ce{H2O} abundances in eight hot Jupiters reported in the literature. All eight planets fall within our predicted ranges for various formation models, however six of them are degenerate between multiple models and, hence, require additional molecular detections for constraining their formation histories. The other two planets, HD 189733~b and HD 209458~b, have water abundances that fall within ranges expected from planets that formed beyond the \ce{CO2} snowline. Finally, we investigate the detections of \ce{H2O}, \ce{CO}, \ce{CH4}, \ce{CO2}, \ce{HCN} and \ce{NH3} in the atmosphere of HD 209458~b and find that, within the framework of our model, the abundances of these molecules best match with a planet that formed between the \ce{CO2} and \ce{CO} snowlines and then underwent disk-free migration to reach its current location., Comment: 14 pages, 11 figures

The initial reports of the presence of phosphine in the cloud decks of Venus has led to the suggestion that volcanism was the source of phosphine, through volcanic phosphides ejected into the clouds. Here we examine the idea that mantle plume volcanism, bringing material from the deep mantle to the surface, could generate observed amounts of phosphine through interaction of explosively erupted phosphide with sulfuric acid clouds. Direct eruption of deep mantle phosphide is unphysical, but shallower material could contain traces of phosphide, and could be erupted to the surface. Explosive eruption that efficiently transported material to the clouds would require ocean:magma interactions or subduction of hydrated oceanic crust, neither of which occur on modern Venus. The transport of erupted material to altitudes coinciding with the observations of phosphine is consequently very inefficient. Using the model proposed by Truong and Lunine as a base case, we estimate that an eruption volume of at least 21,600 km3/year would be required to explain the presence of 1 ppb phosphine in the clouds. This is greater than any historical terrestrial eruption rate, and would have several detectable consequences for remote and in situ observations to confirm. More realistic lithospheric mineralogy, volcano mechanics or atmospheric photochemistry require even more volcanism., Comment: The paper expands on and confirms the results of Bains et al. 2021 arXiv:2009.06499 and provides further constrains on the model of the production of phosphine on Venus proposed by Truong and Lunine https://www.pnas.org/content/118/29/e2021689118 ; v2 is published in Universe

Methane is a strong greenhouse gas, with a higher radiative forcing per unit mass and shorter atmospheric lifetime than carbon dioxide. The remote sensing of methane in regions of industrial activity is a key step toward the accurate monitoring of emissions that drive climate change. Whilst the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) on board the Sentinal-5P satellite is capable of providing daily global measurement of methane columns, data are often compromised by cloud cover. Here, we develop a statistical model which uses nitrogen dioxide concentration data from TROPOMI to efficiently predict values of methane columns, expanding the average daily spatial coverage of observations of the Permian basin from 16% to 88% in the year 2019. The addition of predicted methane abundances at locations where direct observations are not available will support inversion methods for estimating methane emission rates at shorter timescales than is currently possible., Comment: 25 pages, 10 figures. Accepted at Environmental Research Letters

Polluted white dwarfs that have accreted planetary material provide a unique opportunity to probe the geology of exoplanetary systems. However, the nature of the bodies which pollute white dwarfs is not well understood: are they small asteroids, minor planets, or even terrestrial planets? We present a novel method to infer pollutant masses from detections of Ni, Cr and Si. During core--mantle differentiation, these elements exhibit variable preference for metal and silicate at different pressures (i.e., object masses), affecting their abundances in the core and mantle. We model core--mantle differentiation self-consistently using data from metal--silicate partitioning experiments. We place statistical constraints on the differentiation pressures, and hence masses, of bodies which pollute white dwarfs by incorporating this calculation into a Bayesian framework. We show that Ni observations are best suited to constraining pressure when pollution is mantle-like, while Cr and Si are better for core-like pollution. We find 3 systems (WD0449-259, WD1350-162 and WD2105-820) whose abundances are best explained by the accretion of fragments of small parent bodies ($<0.2M_\oplus$). For 2 systems (GD61 and WD0446-255), the best model suggests the accretion of fragments of Earth-sized bodies, although the observed abundances remain consistent ($<3\sigma$) with the accretion of undifferentiated material. This suggests that polluted white dwarfs potentially accrete planetary bodies of a range of masses. However, our results are subject to inevitable degeneracies and limitations given current data. To constrain pressure more confidently, we require serendipitous observation of (nearly) pure core and/or mantle material., Comment: 35 pages, 17 figures. Submitted to MNRAS following positive report from referee

The geology of Earth and super-Earth sized planets will, in many cases, only be observable via their atmospheres. Here, we investigate secondary volcanic atmospheres as a key base case of how atmospheres may reflect planetary geochemistry. We couple volcanic outgassing with atmospheric chemistry models to simulate the growth of C-O-H-S-N atmospheres in thermochemical equilibrium, focusing on what information about a planet's mantle fO$_2$ and bulk silicate H/C ratio could be determined by atmospheric observation. 800K volcanic atmospheres develop distinct compositional groups as the mantle fO$_2$ is varied, which can be identified using sets of (often minor) indicator species: Class O, representing an oxidised mantle and containing SO$_2$ and sulfur allotropes; Class I, formed by intermediate mantle fO$_2$'s and containing CO$_2$, CH$_4$, CO and COS; and Class R, produced by reduced mantles, containing H$_2$, NH$_3$ and CH$_4$. These atmospheric classes are robust to a wide range of bulk silicate H/C ratios. However, the H/C ratio does affect the dominant atmospheric constituent, which can vary between H$_2$, H$_2$O and CO$_2$ once the chemical composition has stabilised to a point where it no longer changes substantially with time. This final atmospheric state is dependent on the mantle fO$_2$, the H/C ratio, and time since the onset of volcanism. The atmospheric classes we present are appropriate for the closed-system growth of hot exoplanets, and may be used as a simple base for future research exploring the effects of other open-system processes on secondary volcanic atmospheres., Comment: Accepted for publication in JGR:Planets

The study of planets outside our solar system may lead to major advances in our understanding of the Earth, and provide insight into the universal set of rules by which planets form and evolve. To achieve these goals requires applying geoscience's wealth of Earth observations to fill in the blanks left by the necessarily minimalist exoplanetary observations. In turn, Earth's many one-offs, e.g., plate tectonics, surface liquid water, a large moon, and life - which have long presented chicken and egg type conundrums for geoscientists - may find resolution in the study of exoplanets possessing only a subset of these phenomena., Comment: To be published as article 1 in the "Geoscience Beyond the Solar System" issue of Elements magazine, v17 No4

Compared to the diversity seen in exoplanets, Venus is a veritable astrophysical twin of the Earth, however its global cloud layer truncates features in transmission spectroscopy, masking its non-Earth-like nature. Observational indicators that can distinguish an exo-Venus from an exo-Earth must therefore survive above the cloud layer. The above-cloud atmosphere is dominated by photochemistry, which depends on the spectrum of the host star and therefore changes between stellar systems. We explore the systematic changes in photochemistry above the clouds of Venus-like exoplanets orbiting K-Dwarf or M-Dwarf host stars, using a recently validated model of the full Venus atmosphere (0-115 km) and stellar spectra from the MUSCLES Treasury survey. SO2, OCS and H2S are key gas species in Venus-like planets that are not present in Earth-like planets, and could therefore act as observational discriminants if their atmospheric abundances are high enough to be detected. We find that SO2, OCS and H2S all survive above the cloud layer when irradiated by the coolest K-Dwarf and all seven M-Dwarfs, whereas these species are heavily photochemically depleted above the clouds of Venus. The production of sulfuric acid molecules that form the cloud layer decreases for decreasing stellar effective temperature. Less steady-state photochemical oxygen and ozone forms with decreasing stellar effective temperature, and the effect of chlorine-catalysed reaction cycles diminish in favour of HOx and SOx catalysed cycles. We conclude that trace sulfur gases will be prime observational indicators of Venus-like exoplanets around M-Dwarf host stars, potentially capable of distinguishing an exo-Venus from an exo-Earth., Comment: 30 pages, 15 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

Ariel, the Atmospheric Remote-sensing Infrared Exoplanet Large-survey, was adopted as the fourth medium-class mission in ESA's Cosmic Vision programme to be launched in 2029. During its 4-year mission, Ariel will study what exoplanets are made of, how they formed and how they evolve, by surveying a diverse sample of about 1000 extrasolar planets, simultaneously in visible and infrared wavelengths. It is the first mission dedicated to measuring the chemical composition and thermal structures of hundreds of transiting exoplanets, enabling planetary science far beyond the boundaries of the Solar System. The payload consists of an off-axis Cassegrain telescope (primary mirror 1100 mm x 730 mm ellipse) and two separate instruments (FGS and AIRS) covering simultaneously 0.5-7.8 micron spectral range. The satellite is best placed into an L2 orbit to maximise the thermal stability and the field of regard. The payload module is passively cooled via a series of V-Groove radiators; the detectors for the AIRS are the only items that require active cooling via an active Ne JT cooler. The Ariel payload is developed by a consortium of more than 50 institutes from 16 ESA countries, which include the UK, France, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Spain, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Portugal, Czech Republic, Hungary, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, and a NASA contribution., Comment: Ariel Definition Study Report, 147 pages. Reviewed by ESA Science Advisory Structure in November 2020. Original document available at: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/documents/1783156/3267291/Ariel_RedBook_Nov2020.pdf/

The recently adopted Ariel ESA mission will measure the atmospheric composition of a large number of exoplanets. This information will then be used to better constrain planetary bulk compositions. While the connection between the composition of a planetary atmosphere and the bulk interior is still being investigated, the combination of the atmospheric composition with the measured mass and radius of exoplanets will push the field of exoplanet characterisation to the next level, and provide new insights of the nature of planets in our galaxy. In this white paper, we outline the ongoing activities of the interior working group of the {\it Ariel} mission, and list the desirable theoretical developments as well as the challenges in linking planetary atmospheres, bulk composition and interior structure., Comment: Accepted for publication in Experimental Astronomy

The loss and gain of volatile elements during planet formation is key for setting their subsequent climate, geodynamics, and habitability. Two broad regimes of volatile element transport in and out of planetary building blocks have been identified: that occurring when the nebula is still present, and that occurring after it has dissipated. Evidence for volatile element loss in planetary bodies after the dissipation of the solar nebula is found in the high Mn to Na abundance ratio of Mars, the Moon, and many of the solar system's minor bodies. This volatile loss is expected to occur when the bodies are heated by planetary collisions and short-lived radionuclides, and enter a global magma ocean stage early in their history. The bulk composition of exo-planetary bodies can be determined by observing white dwarfs which have accreted planetary material. The abundances of Na, Mn, and Mg have been measured for the accreting material in four polluted white dwarf systems. Whilst the Mn/Na abundances of three white dwarf systems are consistent with the fractionations expected during nebula condensation, the high Mn/Na abundance ratio of GD362 means that it is not (>3 sigma). We find that heating of the planetary system orbiting GD362 during the star's giant branch evolution is insufficient to produce such a high Mn/Na. We, therefore, propose that volatile loss occurred in a manner analogous to that of the solar system bodies, either due to impacts shortly after their formation or from heating by short-lived radionuclides. We present potential evidence for a magma ocean stage on the exo-planetary body which currently pollutes the atmosphere of GD362.

Planets and stars ultimately form out of the collapse of the same cloud of gas. Whilst planets, and planetary bodies, readily loose volatiles, a common hypothesis is that they retain the same refractory composition as their host star. This is true within the Solar System. The refractory composition of chondritic meteorites, Earth and other rocky planetary bodies are consistent with solar, within the observational errors. This work aims to investigate whether this hypothesis holds for exoplanetary systems. If true, the internal structure of observed rocky exoplanets can be better constrained using their host star abundances. In this paper, we analyse the abundances of the K-dwarf, G200-40, and compare them to its polluted white dwarf companion, WD 1425+540. The white dwarf has accreted planetary material, most probably a Kuiper belt-like object, from an outer planetary system surviving the star's evolution to the white dwarf phase. Given that binary pairs are chemically homogeneous, we use the binary companion, G200-40, as a proxy for the composition of the progenitor to WD 1425+540. We show that the elemental abundances of the companion star and the planetary material accreted by WD 1425+540 are consistent with the hypothesis that planet and host-stars have the same true abundances, taking into account the observational errors., Comment: 8 pages, MNRAS in press, mistake in star names corrected

The depletion of SO$_2$ and H$_2$O in and above the clouds of Venus (45 -- 65 km) cannot be explained by known gas-phase chemistry and the observed composition of the atmosphere. We apply a full-atmosphere model of Venus to investigate three potential explanations for the SO$_2$ and H$_2$O depletion: (1) varying the below-cloud water vapor (H$_2$O), (2) varying the below-cloud sulfur dioxide (SO$_2$), and (3) the incorporation of chemical reactions inside the sulfuric acid cloud droplets. We find that increasing the below-cloud H$_2$O to explain the SO$_2$ depletion results in a cloud top that is 20 km too high, above-cloud O$_2$ three orders of magnitude greater than observational upper limits and no SO above 80 km. The SO$_2$ depletion can be explained by decreasing the below-cloud SO$_2$ to $20\,{\rm ppm}$. The depletion of SO$_2$ in the clouds can also be explained by the SO$_2$ dissolving into the clouds, if the droplets contain hydroxide salts. These salts buffer the cloud pH. The amount of salts sufficient to explain the SO$_2$ depletion entail a droplet pH of $\sim 1$ at 50 km. Since sulfuric acid is constantly condensing out into the cloud droplets, there must be a continuous and pervasive flux of salts of $\approx 10^{-13} \, {\rm mol \, cm^{-2} \, s^{-1}}$ driving the cloud droplet chemistry. An atmospheric probe can test both of these explanations by measuring the pH of the cloud droplets and the concentrations of gas-phase SO$_2$ below the clouds., Comment: Accepted for publication in The Planetary Science Journal. We kindly ask the planetary science community for feedback and comments. (67 pages, 8 Figures, 7 Tables, Full Model Output Data: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/AKUTME)

We present and validate a new network of atmospheric thermo-chemical and photo-chemical sulfur reactions. We use a 1-D chemical kinetics model to investigate these reactions as part of a broader HCNO chemical network in a series of hot and warm Jupiters. We find that temperatures approaching $1400\,\mathrm{K}$ are favourable for the production of H2S and HS around $\mathrm{10^{-3}\,bar}$, the atmospheric level where detection by transit spectroscopy may be possible, leading to mixing ratios of around $10^{-6}$. At lower temperatures, down to $1000\,\mathrm{K}$, the abundance of S2 can be up to a mixing ratio of $10^{-5}$ at the same pressure, at the expense of H2S and HS, which are depleted down to a mixing ratio of $10^{-6}$. We also investigate how the inclusion of sulfur can manifest in an atmosphere indirectly, by its effect on the abundance of non-sulfur-bearing species. We find that in a model of the atmosphere of HD 209458 b, the inclusion of sulfur can lower the abundance of NH3, CH4 and HCN by up to two orders of magnitude around $\mathrm{10^{-3}\,bar}$. In the atmosphere of the warm Jupiter 51 Eri b, we additionally find the inclusion of sulphur depletes the peak abundance of CO2 by a factor of five, qualitatively consistent with prior models. We note that many of the reactions used in the network have poorly determined rates, especially at higher temperatures. To obtain a truly accurate idea of the impact of sulfur chemistry in hot and warm Jupiter atmospheres, new measurements of these reaction rates must take place., Comment: 17 pages, 9 Figures

Hydrogen in rocky planet atmospheres has been invoked in arguments for extending the habitable zone via N2-H2 and CO2-H2 greenhouse warming, and providing atmospheric conditions suitable for efficient production of prebiotic molecules. On Earth and Super-Earth-sized bodies, where H2-rich primordial envelopes are quickly lost to space, volcanic outgassing can act as a hydrogen source, provided it balances with the loss rate from the top of the atmosphere. Here, we show that both Earth-like and Mars-like planets can sustain atmospheric H2 fractions of several percent across relevant magmatic fO2 ranges. In general this requires hydrogen escape to operate somewhat less efficiently than the diffusion limit. We use a thermodynamical model of magma degassing to determine which combinations of magma oxidation, volcanic flux, and hydrogen escape efficiency can build up appreciable levels of hydrogen in a planet's secondary atmosphere. On a planet similar to the Archean Earth and with a similar magmatic fO2, we suggest that the mixing ratio of atmospheric hydrogen could have been in the range 0.2-3%. A planet erupting magmas around the Iron-Wustite (IW) buffer (i.e., ~3 log fO2 units lower than Archean Earth's), but with otherwise similar volcanic fluxes and H2 loss rates to early Earth, could sustain an atmosphere with approximately 10-20% H2. For an early Mars-like planet with magmas around IW, but a lower range of surface pressures and volcanic fluxes compared to Earth, an atmospheric H2 mixing ratio of 2-8% is possible. On early Mars, this H2 mixing ratio could be sufficient to deglaciate the planet. However, the sensitivity of these results to primary magmatic water contents and volcanic fluxes show the need for improved constraints on the crustal recycling efficiency and mantle water contents of early Mars., Comment: Submitted with reviewer comments to Earth and Planetary Science Letters

The geochemistry and textural associations of chondritic phosphate minerals can provide insights into the geological histories of parental asteroids, but the processes governing their formation and deformation remain poorly constrained. Here, we present a quantitative assessment of phosphorus-bearing mineral textures in the three variously-shocked lithologies (light, dark, and melt) of the Chelyabinsk (LL5) ordinary chondrite using scanning electron microscope, electron microprobe, cathodoluminescence, and electron backscatter diffraction techniques. Phase associations, microtextures, and microstructures of phosphates are extremely variable within and between the differently-shocked lithologies investigated in the Chelyabinsk meteorite. We observe continuously strained as well as recrystallized, strain-free phosphate populations. Recrystallized grains (with strain-free subdomains) are present only in the more intensely shocked dark lithology, indicating that phosphate growth in Chelyabinsk predates the development of primary shock-metamorphic textures. This disruption event is also recorded by complete melting of portions of the meteorite to produce the shock-melt lithology, which contains a population of phosphorus-rich olivine grains. We interpret the textures and phase associations of Chelyabinsk to have resulted from initial phosphate growth via metasomatic olivine replacement, followed by major deformation during an early shock-melting impact and a subsequent minor shock event. This minor event appears to have generated a sub-population of phosphates that display patchy CL textures, in both the light and dark lithology. Finally, we propose a new classification scheme to describe various types of Phosphorus-Olivine-Assemblages (Type I-III POAs), which can be used to classify shock metamorphic events and define the associated physicochemical processes., Comment: Accepted in Meteoritics and Planetary Science

Sulfur is one of the most abundant elements in the Universe, with important roles in astro-, geo-, and biochemistry. Its main reservoirs in planet-forming disks have previously eluded detection: gaseous molecules only account for $<1\,$\% of total elemental sulfur, with the rest likely in either ices or refractory minerals. Mechanisms such as giant planets can filter out dust from gas accreting onto disk-hosting stars. For stars above 1.4 solar masses, this leaves a chemical signature on the stellar photosphere that can be used to determine the fraction of each element that is locked in dust. Here, we present an application of this method to sulfur, zinc, and sodium. We analyse the accretion-contaminated photospheres of a sample of young stars and find $(89\pm8)\,$\% of elemental sulfur is in refractory form in their disks. The main carrier is much more refractory than water ice, consistent with sulfide minerals such as FeS., Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ, correspondence welcome

There are two dominant and contrasting classes of origin of life scenarios: those predicting that life emerged in submarine hydrothermal systems, where chemical disequilibrium can provide an energy source for nascent life; and those predicting that life emerged within subaerial environments, where UV catalysis of reactions may occur to form the building blocks of life. Here, we describe a prebiotically plausible environment that draws on the strengths of both scenarios: surface hydrothermal vents. We show how key feedstock molecules for prebiotic chemistry can be produced in abundance in shallow and surficial hydrothermal systems. We calculate the chemistry of volcanic gases feeding these vents over a range of pressures and basalt C/N/O contents. If ultra-reducing carbon-rich nitrogen-rich gases interact with subsurface water at a volcanic vent they result in 1 mM to 1 M concentrations of diacetylene, acetylene, cyanoacetylene, hydrogen cyanide, bisulfite, hydrogen sulfide and soluble iron in vent water. One key feedstock molecule, cyanamide, is not formed in significant quantities within this scenario, suggesting that it may need to be delivered exogenously, or formed from hydrogen cyanide either via organometallic compounds, or by some as yet-unknown chemical synthesis. Given the likely ubiquity of surface hydrothermal vents on young, hot, terrestrial planets, these results identify a prebiotically plausible local geochemical environment, which is also amenable to future lab-based simulation., Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in Life