Scientists from the NASA Cassini mission discovered two ‘Pac-men’ on Saturn’s moons Mimas and Tethys. Dubbed Pac man because of it resemblance to the video game craze of the 1980s; the reality of these Pacmen is that they are created due to temperature variation across the surface of the moons and can be seen via thermal imagery.
The temperature variation is caused by a difference in surface texture. High energy electrons bombard one side of the moon, compacting the ice, making it slower to heat up. Oh, and when I say heat up, to put ‘heat’ into perspective, we’re talking about solar tropical temperatures of about 65 to 95 Kelvin (-208°C to -178°C).
But back to the star of this cartoon – Pacman – I just loved this game as a child and would waste my pocket money at the local games parlour (actually, it was in a fish and chip shop) trying to out smart the goggle eyed ghosts. I even bought a ‘how to win pacman’ book. I thinks that’s the closest I’ve been to being a game nerd.
Any other gamers daring to share their gaming secrets? Don’t worry, it’s a nice safe environment, here in cyber space, to share this kind of information.
PS. To view Cassini’s journey so far, visit Cassini: 15 years of exploration.
It sounds like you had “Pac Man Fever” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-MONIvP6kI). 🙂
Probably…..but not as bad as that song!
Marti
Yeah, I guess that song should come with some kind of “warning”.
🙂
OMG. I agree with Marti. That soundtrack will haunt me for the rest of the day.
Bad stuff, heh?
I don’t have any gaming secrets other than my addiction to Castleville on Facebook. Maybe I should keep that one a secret.
Possibly, but have no fear, your secret is age with me, here in the land of cyber space.
Marti
PS. You get 5 stars for your contribution. No one else commented on games they liked, or maybe, they were too chicken!
I am a glutton for publishing embarrassing things about myself.
I have to admit to being chicken. Better than admitting that I spent too much of my teen years in video game arcades. Playing which games? Too many to list. Consider I remember playing: Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Man Jr., Galaxian, Galaga, Donkey Kong, Q-Bert, Centipede, Asteroids, Star Wars, Space Invaders, Defender, Missile Command, Pole Position, Q-Bert… Did it have any negative effects on me? I believe my taste in music was affected. 😉
OMG – you just reminded me of Donkey Kong! I never had it, but my friends did, on one of those dinkey little portable games. I don’t know – jumping barrels seemed like a fun and logical thing for a gorilla to be doing.
PS. Yes, I think it did play with the part of your brain dedicated to ‘taste in music’
🙂 Marti
We loved to play Pac Man after swimming while drinking orange pop. Fun days!
Sounds totally awesome!
Marti