There was a time when scientists thought that atmospheric chemistry on Saturn’s moon Titan became more inert closer to the surface. A new study supported by the NASA Astrobiology Institute has shown that this is not the case.

Atmospheric simulations in a laboratory at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory suggest that complex organic chemistry extends lower in the atmosphere than previously thought. The study extends the volume of Titan’s atmosphere that is involved in producing molecules that could eventually lead to the building blocks of life.

The paper was published in Nature Communications .