A Pair of “Pac-Men” Appears on Saturn Moons

Two figures shaped like the iconic video game hero Pac-Man have been spotted by researchers at NASA's Cassini mission on the moons of Saturn.

The images are visible through an infrared spectrometer whose thermal information presents the warmer areas in a Pac-Man shape, NASA reports.

One of the figures was spotted by scientists on the moon Mimas in 2010, while the other was observed in 2011 on the moon Tethys.

Unlike the Mimas Pac-Man, the Tethys one appears not only in thermal analysis, but also in visible-light images of the surface.

Scientists have not found a full explanation for the mysterious phenomenon yet. However, they suspect the appearances might be caused by high-energy electrons hitting the moons' borders faced toward Saturn, altering the soft surface and turning it into a rigid ice-like field.

This prevents the specific areas to heat quickly in the sun and cool down when the night comes, which gives the strange configuration of the objects.