![18040-mercury-craters-cookie-monster-photo](http://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/18040-mercury-craters-cookie-monster-photo.jpeg?w=465)
NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, which takes detailed images of Mercury from orbit, has discovered a phenomenon much more fun and educational (if a little less convincing) than the famous face on Mars. It’s Cookie Monster! Or at least, those are Cookie Monster’s eyes, but … OH MY GOD WHERE IS HIS MOUTH??? This whimsical tale of a space Muppet just got way more Harlan Ellison-esque than I was expecting.
NASA is claiming that this is a large crater and two smaller craters, but really, it seems equally likely that Mercury is simply Tartarus for Muppets, where those who have committed sins like gluttony, sloth, and confusing “near” with “far” are eternally subject to ironic torments.
![](https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/cafeteria_worker.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=665)