NASA Scientists Baffled By Weird ‘Graffiti’ On Saturn’s Moon

NASA scientists have been left puzzled after finding what looks like a cosmic graffiti tag on the surface of one of Saturn’s icy moons.

The strange red, curved lines were spotted in new images from NASA’s Cassini probe - and are thought to be fairly new.

‘The red arcs really popped out when we saw the new images,’ said Paul Schenk of the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. ‘It’s surprising how extensive these features are.’

Scientists don’t know what the mysterious red lines are - they could be ice with chemical impurities, or caused by gas from within Tethys.

‘The red arcs must be geologically young because they cut across older features like impact craters, but we don’t know their age in years,’ said Paul Helfenstein of Cornell University.

‘If the stain is only a thin, colored veneer on the icy soil, exposure to the space environment at Tethys’ surface might erase them on relatively short time scales.’

The Cassini team is currently planning follow-up observations of the features, at higher resolution, later this year.