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Ongoing volatile loss from Mercury has direct implications for reconstructions of the planet's interior composition, thermal evolution, and the history of its tenuous exosphere.
The concentration of slope lineae in thermally stressed, sun-facing crater environments indicates that solar heating is an important trigger for processes that enhance volatile escape from near-surface layers on Mercury.
Geostatistical analysis of the new inventory shows that Mercury's slope lineae occur preferentially on sun-facing slopes inside relatively young impact craters that cut through thick volcanic deposits into underlying volatile-rich bedrock.
Detection of new or changed slope lineae between the MESSENGER and BepiColombo eras would provide strong evidence that volatile-driven processes are still reshaping Mercury's surface on human timescales.
BELA's elevation measurements will enable detailed three-dimensional reconstructions of Mercury's topography to help refine models of tectonic deformation and surface composition.
Researchers from the Center for Space and Habitability at the University of Bern and the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica performed the first statistical analysis of lineae (bright slope streaks) on Mercury.
When volatiles escape at the base of a crater on Mercury, collapse structures called hollows can form, and when volatiles escape on crater walls, microhollows can form that trigger material to fall and create lineae.
Impact cratering generates fractures in Mercury’s superficial layer that can become pathways for volatiles to escape from deeper layers.
The study on Mercury’s lineae was published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
Mercury is the smallest planet in the Solar System by both mass and diameter.
The SIMBIO-SYS instrument will provide compositional data for Mercury’s surface and lineae that are currently largely missing or insufficient.
Volatiles identified as relevant to Mercury’s surface processes include sodium, potassium, sulfur, and chlorine.
The research team mapped the global distribution and morphological properties of about 400 bright slope streaks (lineae) on Mercury.
Lineae on Mercury appear as elongated bright filaments often occurring in groups and are frequently associated with very bright, irregular-edged depressions called hollows.
The ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission is currently en route to Mercury with orbital insertion planned for the end of 2026.
Discoveries of volcanic craters and hollows by the MESSENGER mission indicate Mercury has experienced relatively recent geological activity.
Mercury has an almost non-existent atmosphere and a solar day that lasts 176 Earth days.
Mercury’s surface experiences an approximate 600-degree Celsius temperature swing between its day side and night side.
MESSENGER observed Mercury from 2011 to 2015 and is the only spacecraft to have visited the planet so far.
The findings support theoretical work from 2025 that predicted the presence of cold electrons around Mercury based on wave analyses.