Images have been taken from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which is exploring Saturn and its moons since 2004. The images have unveiled strange red-colored arcs on the surface of Saturn's moon Tethys. The stretches have left astronomers a bit confused about their origins.

The icy moon Tethys orbits Saturn at a distance of around 295,000 km. The moon first discovered by Italian mathematician and astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1684 is considered to be majorly comprised of water ice.

A number of images were taken of the moon with the help of infrared and violet spectral filters from Cassini's onboard camera. The images were combined and the resulting views showed a series of strange red arcs.

Some of the arcs were stretching several hundred miles across the landscape. In April, Cassini captured the images, which are considered to be the first ones to clearly show large sections of Tethys' northern hemisphere.

Owing to the summer phase, the area has also become better lit. As per astronomers, the arcs are considered to be relatively young. As said above, the arcs are said to be having reddish hue, which is considered to be extremely rare on Saturn and its 53 confirmed satellites.

For now, it is not known from where the arcs have originated. It is being said that it could be due to chemical impurities in the icy surface of the moon or there could be the possibility of a bi-product of outgassing.