Of all the places in the universe to find something resembling Pac-Man, the surface of one of Saturn's moons probably isn't particularly high on the list. Beyond a crater on the moon Mimas that causes it to resemble the Death Star, NASA has noticed that the crater -- combined with a peculiar infrared temperature reading -- makes the moon look very much like the dot-eating protagonist of the Pac-Man games doing what he does best.
When conducting the infrared scan, scientists expected "smoothly varying temperatures peaking in the early afternoon near the equator" on the surface of Mimas. Instead, what they found was what you see above, leading a NASA press release (via The Great Beyond) to even describe the temperature readings as being "along one edge of the moon's disk, making a sharply defined Pac-Man shape." While scientists can explain the higher temperature readings in the crater, the overall result has left them "baffled."
But that doesn't mean that they're without any theories. John Spencer, a team member working on the infrared readings that the NASA spacecraft provided, said in the press release, "We suspect the temperatures are revealing differences in texture on the surface," adding, "It's maybe something like the difference between old, dense snow and freshly fallen powder."
Whatever the reasoning for it turns out to be, it doesn't change the fact that this is a very bizarre (and very cool) occurrence.
