Could this game changing element be an answer to the search for alien life?

Mankind has been attracted to the potential for extraterrestrial life for centuries. The search for alien life has always given fire to numerous scientific expeditions, and our interest in the universe has grown exponentially. The search for alien life is challenging though, it is often filled with details and uncertainty.
Astronomers have recently discovered a new method that can potentially narrow the search. This substance, in contrast to predicting the ideal living conditions, does the reverse.
Astronomers have discovered that sulfur could be crucial in narrowing down our search for extraterrestrial life. Contrary to what one might think, the substance- Sulphur, is not an indicator of life. Instead, large amounts of sulfur dioxide in a planet's atmosphere suggests that the world is uninhabitable and can be crossed off the list of potential planets for life.
Discovery of life on another planet is one of the holy grails of contemporary astronomy but a truly unpredictable challenge. The James Webb Space Telescope, for example, won't be able to detect biosignatures like gases in atmospheres created by life on the nearby planets. The Habitable Worlds Observatory coming down the pipe will only be able to examine a few of the potentially habitable exoplanets.

One significant challenge is that biosignature spectra tend to be extremely faint. So one of the means of shortening the list of potentially life-supporting planets is based on its potential for life, mainly signified by the presence of water vapour within its atmosphere. If a planet contains a significant amount of water vapor, then it may stand a good probability of supporting life.
This condition is the foundation of the habitable zone, the area around a star that has conditions perfectly suited for liquid water to be present. In our planetary system, Venus is at the edge of the habitable zone, with temperatures on its surface reaching over 800 degrees Fahrenheit (427 degrees Celsius) under a dense, suffocating atmosphere. Mars, however, is basically frozen solid, with its water trapped in polar ice caps and underground.
However, even searching for water presents difficulties. For example, from great distances, it's challenging to differentiate Earth which is inhabited from Venus which is (uninhabited and hostile to life, because their atmospheric spectra are too similar when searching for water vapour.
In a recent preprint paper, astronomers highlighted that they have found another signature gas that could be useful for distinguishing uninhabitable worlds from potentially habitable ones, which is sulfur dioxide.
Warm, wet worlds like Earth have very little sulfur dioxide in their atmospheres because rain can wash it down into the oceans or soil, resulting in automatic cleansing. Interestingly, Venus also has very little sulfur dioxide due to high amounts of ultraviolet radiation from the sun, which converts sulfur dioxide to hydrogen sulfide in the upper atmosphere.

Fortunately, planets around the red dwarf stars present another option. Red dwarfs emit very little ultraviolet radiation, allowing sulfur dioxide to persist in the upper atmospheres of dry, uninhabitable planets.
Astronomers are particularly interested in red dwarf planetary systems because red dwarfs are the most common type of star in the galaxy. Many nearby systems, such as Proxima Centauri and TRAPPIST-1, are red dwarfs known to host planets, making them appealing targets for life searches.
While the new sulfur dioxide technique cannot identify life-bearing planets, it can help eliminate those unlikely to host life. If a rocky planet orbiting a red dwarf shows an abundance of sulfur dioxide, it is likely similar to Venus, dry, hot, and inhospitable. Conversely, a lack of significant sulfur dioxide could make it a promising candidate for further observation to search for water vapor and, potentially, life.