NASA perplexed social media users when they shared an image of a celestial body on their Instagram page and asked for guesses about its identity. The image displayed a white celestial object encircled by a wide ring, resembling a dumpling or ravioli. It turns out that the celestial body in the picture is Pan, Saturn’s innermost moon. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured the image of Pan. The American space agency added in the caption that “Pan, the innermost of Saturn’s known moons, orbits the planet from inside a gap in one of Saturn’s rings.” NASA explained that the two images shared of Pan were taken from different angles, one from above the moon and the other from below. The moon appears to have a flat ridge around its midpoint, along with lines that resemble surface scrapes.
Social media users reacted humorously to the image. One user commented, “Ravioli can be cooked on Pans, right?” Another user humorously likened it to a “cabbage.” A different user described it as the “strangest moon ever,” suggesting it looks like a hat when viewed from above.
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