Mercury: New photos show great lava flows, possible ice and unexplained pock marks.

Wired Science posts images from NASA's orbiting spacecraft, Messenger, that show huge lava flows likely carved the long channels and teardrop-shaped hills shown here. The lava may have come from volcanic vents seen in the lower-left image.

Ground-based radar has revealed very reflective material — much like water ice — sitting in deep craters at Mercury’s north pole.

Oddly shaped dips surrounded by very bright material, shown here in Mercury's Raditladi basin, are a brand-new puzzle. Scientists have so far identified about three dozen of these markings inside impact craters at all latitudes and terrains on the planet. But how they formed is still a mystery.

Click on Wired Science for more photos and detail.