The Messenger spacecraft has photographed some neat craters on Mercury’s surface and NASA thinks they look like the cookie monster. What kind of magic cookies are you eating, NASA? Hmmm, wait. I think they are right.
Anyone Else Think This Looks Like the Cookie Monster? OK, so maybe it’s just me. But the superposition of younger craters on older craters (in this case two smaller craters upon the rim of an older crater) can result in landforms that appear to resemble more familiar shapes to human eyes.”
It’s not just you, NASA. Don’t worry, it’s all OK. You may be reading too much Gizmodo and watching too much Sesame Street, but all is fine.
According to the space agency, “this image was acquired as a high-resolution targeted observation. Targeted observations are images of a small area on Mercury’s surface at resolutions much higher than the 200m/pixel morphology base map. It is not possible to cover all of Mercury’s surface at this high resolution, but typically several areas of high scientific interest are imaged in this mode each week.” Pretty neat. [NASA]