Mercury’s Bright Lineae Hint at Ongoing Surface Activity

A new study surveying 402 slope lineae on Mercury, analyzed via machine learning from 100,000 images captured between 2011 and 2015, finds that bright streaks cluster on sun-facing crater slopes and often originate from hollows, suggesting ongoing surface activity driven by volatile materials from beneath the crust. If confirmed, Mercury would not be geologically dead, with future ESA/JAXA observations expected to test this active-surfaces hypothesis (Nature Communications Earth & Environment, 2026).