On May 15, 2026, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft made a close approach to Mars. The probe used the Red Planet's gravity to gain momentum for its journey to the main asteroid belt. During the flyby, the spacecraft's multispectral imagers captured the Martian surface and atmosphere in incredible detail.
A Glowing Martian Crescent
Because Psyche approached Mars from a high phase angle, the planet appeared as a thin crescent. This was the last view of the entire planet before it began to overfill the camera's field of view.
Interestingly, the crescent appeared brighter and extended farther around the disk than anticipated due to the strong scattering of sunlight through the planet’s dusty atmosphere. The image has been processed into a natural-color view, approximating what the human eye would see.
Credit: NASA
Wind Streaks and Ancient Craters
Flying over the southern hemisphere, the spacecraft captured the diversity of Martian terrain, including the aftermath of powerful winds in the Syrtis Major region and a giant ancient impact basin.
The image on the left shows dark streaks formed by wind blowing over impact craters, extending up to 30 miles (50 km) long. The enhanced-color image on the right features the massive double-ring Huygens crater (about 290 miles / 470 km in diameter). The various colors in this ancient terrain likely represent differences in the compositional properties of dust, sand, and bedrock.
In the Rearview Mirror: South Pole
Shortly after its closest approach, Psyche looked back and took detailed images of Mars' water ice-rich south polar cap, which extends across more than 430 miles (700 kilometers).
The left photo is the highest-resolution view of the polar ice captured by the mission (1.14 km per pixel). The image on the right shows a nearly "full Mars" receding into the distance, with the view extending from the south pole northwards to the vast Valles Marineris canyon system.
Credit: NASA
What's Next? With Mars in the rearview mirror, Psyche will resume using its solar-electric propulsion system to make a beeline to the main asteroid belt. It will arrive in August 2029 to orbit the asteroid Psyche, thought to be the exposed metallic core of an early planetesimal.
