hydrocarbon

(Newser) - NASA's Cassini spacecraft first spotted a mysterious island-like feature in Ligeia Mare—a large hydrocarbon sea on Titan, the largest of Saturn's moons—in July 2013. When it faded away during later imaging, some scientists dubbed it "Magic Island." Then last month radar images showed that...

(Newser) - Exxon has pleaded guilty in federal court and agreed to pay $600,000 in fines over the deaths of dozens of birds at its drilling and production facilities, the Los Angeles Times reports. The 85 birds, including owls, waterfowl, and hawks, died after being exposed to hydrocarbons at Exxon's natural...

(Newser) - Titan, one of Saturn's dozens of moons, has supplies of natural gas and liquid hydrocarbons hundreds of times greater than Earth’s oil reserves, Space.com reports. The unmanned Cassini spacecraft has mapped only 20% of Titan’s surface with radar, and has already discovered dozens of bodies of hydrocarbon...

(Newser) - Underneath the ground of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, is a dark blob of gasoline, solvents, and associated poisons that composes the biggest oil spill in US history.  It's accumulated from a century's worth of smaller leaks and waste dumping, reports New York magazine, and ExxonMobil has quietly accepted the blame, but...