NASA Wise: 'Pacman' Nebula Grows Teeth

In visible light, the star-forming cloud catalogued as NGC 281 in the constellation of Cassiopeia appears to be chomping through the cosmos, earning it the nickname the "Pacman" nebula after the famous Pac-Man video game of the 1980s.

CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

A new view of the "Pacman" nebula reveals a gaping mouth and a set of sharp-looking teeth taking a bite out of space.

The Pacman nebula is a giant cloud of dust and gas located approximately 9,200 light-years away within our own Milky Way galaxy.

It's official name is NGC 281, but the nebula earned a more popular nickname because of its resemblance to the character from the hugely popular Pac-Man video game that was first released in 1980.

When the nebula is viewed through visible-light telescopes, the large star-forming cloud appears to be chomping its way through the cosmos, NASA scientists said in a statement.

'Pacman Nebula' Lives the High Life

High-mass stars are important because they are responsible for much of the energy pumped into our galaxy over its lifetime.

Unfortunately, these stars are poorly understood because they are often found relatively far away and can be obscured by gas and dust.

The star cluster NGC 281 is an exception to this rule.

It is located about 9,200 light years from Earth and, remarkably, almost 1,000 light years above the plane of the Galaxy, giving astronomers a nearly unfettered view of the star formation within it.

NGC 281 is known informally as the "Pacman Nebula" because of its appearance in optical images. In optical images the "mouth" of the Pacman character appears dark because of obscuration by dust and gas, but in the infrared Spitzer image the dust in this region glows brightly.

Image Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/S.Wolk; IR: NASA/JPL/CfA/S.Wolk

NASA Cassini Images: Saturn's moon Mimas with Pacman profile

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has made the most amazing discovery in the history of science: an image of Pac-Man on the Death Star.

This is the temperature map of Mimas, Saturn's icy moon. As you can see, it's basically a giant Pac-Man about to eat a power pellet. According to Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory Linda Spilker, this is really weird:

Other moons usually grab the spotlight, but it turns out Mimas is more bizarre than we thought it was. It has certainly given us some new puzzles.

NASA scientists at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center have some ideas. According to Dr. Mike Flasar, composite infrared spectrometer principal investigator at Goddard, the culprit may be the giant Herschel crater:

Even though we can't explain the observed pattern of surface temperatures on Mimas, the giant Herschel crater is a leading suspect. The energy of impact that created it several billion years ago has been estimated to be one-seventh of Mimas's own gravitational energy.

Anything much larger would likely have torn the moon apart. We really would like to see if there is also an anomalous temperature pattern on the other side of Herschel, which has not been observed so closely.

Cornell University's Paul Helfenstein—who's an associate in the Cassini imagine team—speculates that the pattern may be related to "silicate minerals or carbon-rich particles, possibly because of meteor dust falling onto the moon or impurities already embedded in surface ice.

As the sun's warming rays and the vacuum of space evaporate the brighter ice, the darker material is concentrated and left behind. Gravity pulls the dark material down the crater walls, exposing fresh ice underneath."