Cassini mission scientists at NASA have captured a thermal imaging Mimas and Tethys of NASA satellites that keep a striking resemblance to the Pacman icon or Comecocos, the popular video game created in the eighties. The photographs show the hottest areas of both bodies in yellow and have been published in Icarus magazine.
Scientists suspect that the comet-like shape of the thermal profiles of Saturn's moons, obtained with the Cassini probe's composite infrared spectrometer, is due to the way the high-energy electrons bombard the low latitudes on the side of the satellites. facing forward as they orbit Saturn. This means that the altered surface does not heat up as quickly when it receives sunlight, nor does it cool down at the same rate as the rest when night falls.
According to Carly Howett, co-author of the work, the observations suggest that "the Saturn system, and also the Jupiter system, could become a gallery of silhouettes of these video game characters."
