Benzene, a single hydrocarbon with a single-ring structure, has been detected on Titan and is thought to be a building block for larger hydrocarbons — two- and three-ring structures known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) — that make up the molecules and particles in Titan’s hazy atmosphere. Researchers in this study combined a two-ring PAH with another hydrocarbon and formed a 3-ring PAH.Both of the combined molecules are thought to exist on Titan, so, after simulating chemical reactions that might happen on Titan in the lab, the researchers think that such reactions could happen on Titan and contribute to its atmospheric haze.Understanding the complex chemistry of Titan could help to clue scientists into the atmospheric makeup of other moons and planets, even earth. “People use Titan to think about a ‘pre-biotic’ Earth – when nitrogen was more prevalent in the early Earth’s atmosphere,” Ahmed said in the statement.But, while this research certainly refines our understanding of Titan’s chemistry and how molecules in the atmospheric haze may have formed, “a lot remains,” Ahmed said about studying Titan.This study was published Oct. 8 in the journal Nature Astronomy.