Chemical cycling

Chemical cycling plays a large role in sustaining planetary atmospheres, liquids and biological processes and can greatly influence weather and climate.

[9] Recent evidence suggests that similar chemical cycles to Earth's occur on a lesser scale on Mars, facilitated by the thin atmosphere, including carbon dioxide (and possibly carbon),[10] water,[11] sulphur,[12] methane,[13] oxygen,[14] ozone,[15] and nitrogen[16] cycles.

Many studies point to significantly more active chemical cycles on Mars in the past, however the faint young Sun paradox has proved problematic in determining chemical cycles involved in early climate models of the planet.

[18] In addition, the Io plasma torus contributes to a sulphur cycle on Jupiter and Ganymede.

[33] Neptune's internal heat and convection drives cycles of methane,[18] carbon,[34] and a combination of other volatiles within Triton's lithosphere.

[35] Models predicted the presence of seasonal nitrogen cycles on the moon Triton,[36] however this has not been supported by observations to date.

Models predict a seasonal nitrogen cycle on Pluto[37] and observations by New Horizons appear to support this.

An example chemical cycle, a schematic representation of a Nitrogen cycle on Earth. This process results in the continual recycling of nitrogen gas involving the ocean.
Earth's water cycle .
Possible sources of a hypothesized Martian Methane cycle.
Jupiter's gas toruses generated by Io (green) and Europa (blue)
A graph depicting mechanisms of Titan's methanological cycle.