LOOK: Saturn’s tiny moon a ‘space empanada’?
Screen grab from Twitter/@carolyporco
Astronomers from the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) has always found Saturn’s moon, Pan, quite peculiar-looking.
Now, the whole world has caught up with the fad and suggested that the dainty satellite actually looks like some of their favorite foods.
The space agency released photos from its Cassini mission earlier this week, highlighting the dwarf sun.
Cassini imaging chief Carolyn Porco shared some of the images on her personal Twitter account and entertained questions regarding tis strange shape.
“For those who asked: Pan orbits in a ring gap of its own making. Early on & to some degree even now, ring material falls on its equator,” she tweeted. “That’s how the moon gets its distinctive equatorial bulge.”
For those who asked: Pan orbits in a ring gap of its own making. Early on & to some degree even now, ring material falls on its equator
— Carolyn Porco (@carolynporco) March 9, 2017
Her scientific explanations, however, were hilariously brushed off by Twitter users who debated as to which edible treat it resembled the most.
“After 13 yrs, we’ve come to expect extreme reactions to our images. But hunger? Ravioli, tortellini, empanada, pierogi, hamburger, brie?” she was quoted as saying in a Cnet.com report.
NASA, meanwhile, said that Cassini’s photograph was “the closest images ever taken of Pan and will help to characterize its shape and geology.”
Despite its somehow unusual look and diminutive size, Pan is responsible for creating a dark gap known as “Encke Gap” on Saturn’s rings.
The Cassini project was made possible through a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.
The mission is expected to end this year, after the Cassini spacecraft burns up in Saturn’s atmosphere after 13 productive years. Khristian Ibarrola /ra/rga
