American taxpayers didn't have to pay for this particular Cookie Monster, but we did spring for the camera that took the pic.
(Credit:
Flickr/NASA Goddard Photo and Video)
While Big Bird
might be feeling a bit vulnerable to winding up on a list of endangered
fictional species of late, "Sesame Street" colleague Cookie Monster
appears to be expanding its range by at least 48 million miles, showing
up recently on Mercury.
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center posted the above photo taken by the Messenger spacecraft in orbit around Mercury to its Flickr
stream. To me it looks like bumps and shadows on a planet that clearly
create a profile of Monsieur Monster, or, to put it in more scientific
NASA terms:
...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.
The shot is a "targeted observation" taken at a much higher
resolution than the typical 200 meters per pixel scale used to map the
surface of planet. Or, in earthling terms, NASA basically zoomed in on
the Cookie Monster craters to get this image.
It appears federal funding for PBS is no longer the primary political
concern surrounding "Sesame Street." I, for one, want to see proof that
Cookie Monster is actually from this planet and an appropriate
character to be teaching our children to count. Clearly, it's time for
PBS to produce Mr. Monster's long-form birth certificate.
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