Item #: SCP-6378
Level 4/6378

Object Class: Euclid
Classified

The surface of SCP-6378 from space, observed by the NASA MESSENGER probe.

Special Containment Procedures: The Foundation is to work with worldwide space research agencies to ensure that there are no civilian missions to land on the surface of SCP-6378 in the forseeable future. If such a mission is deemed inevitable for any reason, the Foundation is to collaborate closely with the involved space agencies in ensuring that all collected data is replaced with artificial simulated data produced by the Foundation Department of Geology.
Description: SCP-6378 is a large spherical object orbiting the sun at a distance of approximately 0.4 AU, known to the public as the planet Mercury. It consists of a crust and mantle composed of mostly silicate rock, and a large metallic core.
The surface of SCP-6378 consists of billions of individual surface features resembling life-size human hands. Each hand appears to be unique, and in different poses.
Despite being composed of stone, the surface features are capable of slow movement. The change over time is small enough to be unnoticable to the casual observer. Additionally, damaged parts of SCP-6378‘s surface will slowly regenerate over time.
Seismic data gathered by recent Foundation missions suggest that the subsurface layer of SCP-6378 contains multiple cavities, the shapes of which outline the figures of human bodies piled together in a disorderly fashion. These bodies are not connected to the hand-shaped features on the surface, and each one appears to be missing its hands.
Discovery: The anomalous properties of SCP-6378 were discovered in 1987, when the Foundation research probe SIEGEL-009 landed on the surface of Mercury. The mission was conducted as part of Project ASTRA, a series of space missions dedicated to gathering information on extraterrestrial anomalous activity across the solar system before civilian missions could be conducted. Immediately after the first photographs from the surface of SCP-6378 were received, Mercury was classified as an SCP object and the current containment procedures were drafted.
Addendum 6378-01: Excerpt from the transcript of Data File AT013-20110208-0011

[BEGIN LOG]
The camera focuses on an area nearby, where the hand-shaped surface features are moving at a significantly faster rate than average. The surface features appear to be moving away from a single point, leaving an empty gap in the middle.
The view zooms in on the area around the point the surface features are moving away from. Between the hands, a small, previously unseen surface feature is visible.
The camera focuses on the new surface feature. It appears to be in the shape of an infant human hand.
[END LOG]

Addendum 6378-02: According to photographic data of SCP-6378's surface, it is estimated that the total number of hands composing the surface of SCP-6378 is at approximately 230 billion. It has been noted that this roughly corresponds to twice the estimated number of humans that have ever existed. The significance of this is unknown.

Footnotes
1. A 3-minute video file recorded by the AT013 Surface Probe, after noticing significant movement within the surface features nearby.

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