Meteorites & Asteroids

Reactivity Of Chondritic Meteorites Under H2-rich Atmospheres: Formation Of H2S

By Keith Cowing

Press Release

October 31, 2024

Filed under astrochemistry, astrogeology, chondritic meteorites, dust grains, exoplanet, hydrogen-rich atmosphere, meteorite

Reactivity Of Chondritic Meteorites Under H2-rich Atmospheres: Formation Of H2S — Panel A: Schematic representation for the formation of the Fe vacanciess on the (011)FeS surface. Panel B: optimized geometries for the original, non-defective, slab, the slab with a single Fe vacancy and the slab with two Fe vacancies (S atoms are in yellow and Fe atoms in orange). Fe atoms highlighted in blue colour are the ones removed on the process. S atoms highlighted in red are the most reactive ones in each structure. — astro-ph.SR)

Current models of chemical evolution during star and planetary formation rely on the presence of dust grains to act as a third body.

However, they generally ignore the reactivity of the dust grains themselves. Dust grains present in the protoplanetary phase will evolve as the solar system forms and, after protoplanets have appeared, they will be constantly delivered to their surfaces in the form of large aggregates or meteorites.

Chondritic meteorites are mostly unaltered samples of the dust present in the first stages of the Solar System formation, that still arrive nowadays to the surface of Earth and allow us to study the properties of the materials forming the early Solar System.

These materials contain, amongst others, transition metals that can potentially act as catalysts, as well as other phases that can potentially react in different astrophysical conditions, such as FeS. In this work, we present the reactivity of chondritic meteorites under hydrogen-rich atmospheres, particularly towards the reduction of FeS for the formation of H₂S and metallic Fe during the early phases of the planetary formation.

We present the obtained results on the reaction rates and the percentage of FeS available to react in the materials. Additionally, we include a computational study of the reaction mechanism and the energetics. Finally, we discuss the implications of an early formation of H₂S in planetary surfaces.

V. Cabedo, G. Pareras, J. Allitt, A. Rimola, J. Llorca, H. H. P. Yiu, M. R. S. McCoustra

Comments: Approved for publication in MNRAS
Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR); Geophysics (physics.geo-ph)
Cite as: arXiv:2410.23012 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2410.23012v1 [astro-ph.EP] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2410.23012
Focus to learn more
Submission history
From: Victoria Cabedo
[v1] Wed, 30 Oct 2024 13:39:40 UTC (7,832 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.23012

Astrobiology

Keith Cowing

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻

Follow on Twitter