The Curious Case of the Blood-Stained Moon : Tethys

Following Cassini's close pass of Tethys in November scientist got a chance to get a closer look at the curious crimson streaks that had first been spotted as the probe entered the system in 2004 and again in April this year , the closer look reveals the streaks in all their mysterious glory and has created a bit of head scratching among scientists as to their origin.


The streaks are a few kilometers wide and hundreds of kilometers long and their origin is up for debate , Lunar and Planetary Institute scientist Paul Schenk who presented the findings says “We basically have a little mystery.”

“You don’t see any trace of scarps or ridges or depressions of any kind,” Schenk says, meaning there are no obvious landforms associated with the smears – or at least nothing that’s big enough to see at Cassini’s current resolution. Some of the nearby craters have odd, dark material inside them, but it’s not clear what that material is, how it got there, or if it’s associated with the streaks at all.

Perhaps the best clue about where the streaks are coming from can be found by plotting their locations on the moon. When Schenk mapped the lines onto the moon’s surface, he saw a pattern suggesting the moon is being squeezed or deformed by some kind of global stress – such as irregular rotation, a shifting orbit, or the migration of its poles. But simulations of those processes don’t produce landforms that quite line up with where the streaks are.

One thing is clear, though: The streaks are relatively young. Normally, dust from Saturn’s E ring and charged particles from space would erase the smudges. But they’re still there. And, they’re drawn on top of the Odysseus basin, meaning that the crater came first. Scientists aren’t sure precisely how old Odysseus is, but Schenk suggests it couldn’t have been made more than 2 billion years ago.
phenomena.nationalgeographic.com...

I think the likelihood is the streaks are caused by stresses on the Moon but that doesn't rule out that they may be caused by something a little more exotic.

The Red Dwarf side swiped the moon in a accident.

I blame Lister.

a reply to: gortex

The Curious Case of the Blood-Stained Moon : Tethys

So moons do get varicose veins too...

a reply to: gortex

a reply to: gortex

Hmmmm. Perhaps a Fleet of Ships passing that dumped their tanks of Red Liquid. (I don't want to say Blood, But...)

It is definitely an interesting 'happening' there... I wonder if 'They' will find out what those Streaks are. Or How They could even find out such a thing without sending a Probe down to the surface to do a Scoop and Examine kind of experiment... Interesting for sure! Thanx for the Share here! Syx...

a reply to: gortex

Imagine if this is the place we finally find the proof of LIFE in other places?? What if all that claret is the bloody remnant of an ancient battleground? A closer pass might show something like this:



There could be a sign saying 'PRIVATE PROPERTY! THIS SYSTEM IS GUARDED BY *************.' I just tried some remote viewing of that sign and the name was unreadable due to frozen blood splatter and laser cannon holeage. Awesome huh!?

Pssst....all of that was an excuse to cruise past and say Merry Christmas matey and hoping you have a moderately unannoying New Year. Best any of us can hope for is the Irkometer stays close to zero for as long as possible.

a reply to: gortex

Somebody swatted a full mosquito.

originally posted by: eriktheawful
The Red Dwarf side swiped the moon in a accident.

I blame Lister.