A NASA spacecraft has captured amazing images of Mars as it zipped past the Red Planet, coming just 4,609km (2,864 miles) above its surface.
The spacecraft in question is Psyche, whose primary mission is to visit the asteroid Psyche up-close and give scientists a unique view of a cosmic relic left over from the formation of the Solar System.
A boost from the Red Planet
Sending a spacecraft across the Solar System isn't easy, because robotic probes don't simply fly in a straight line to get to their destination.
Instead, they fly in carefully-planned routes that make use of the gravitational pull of Solar System bodies in order to speed up, slow down or change direction without the need to expend enormous amounts of fuel doing so.
These are called gravity-assist manoeuvres, and in May 2026 the Psyche spacecraft used Mars to give itself one such boost, enabling it to zoom onwards to its final destination.
Psyche's fly-by of Mars was completed on 15 May 2026, and the science team say it has given them a valuable practice run ahead of the spacecraft’s arrival at asteroid Psyche in 2029.
The spacecraft is now travelling onwards to the asteroid, which is located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Once the flyby was complete, the Psyche science team studied radio signals between the spacecraft and NASA’s Deep Space Network to confirm Psyche is still on the correct trajectory.
"Although we were confident in our calculations and flight plan, monitoring the DSN’s Doppler signal in real time during the flyby was still exciting," says Don Han, Psyche’s navigation lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
"We’ve confirmed that Mars gave the spacecraft a 1,000 mile‑per‑hour boost and shifted its orbital plane by about 1 degree relative to the Sun. We are now on course for arrival at the asteroid Psyche in summer 2029."
The flyby gave the team the chance to test out Psyche's instruments and also the chance for a practice run, ahead of its final arrival at the asteroid.
As a bonus, Psyche captured these amazing images of Mars.
More on Mars
Psyche's Mars images
Psyche approached Mars from a high phase angle, making the Red Planet appear as a thin crescent in the days leading up to the close approach.
This was caused by sunlight reflecting off the surface of Mars, creating the same sort of illuminated crescent we see on the Moon from Earth.
The team say the Mars crescent appeared brighter and seemed to stretch farther around the planet than expected, because of the scattering of sunlight through the planet’s atmosphere.
Psyche then passed from Mars's nighttime side to its daytime side, capturing even more images around the time of closest approach.
"We’ve captured thousands of images of the approach to Mars and of the planet’s surface and atmosphere at close approach," says Jim Bell, Psyche imager instrument lead at Arizona State University in Tempe.
"This dataset provides unique and important opportunities for us to calibrate and characterise the performance of the cameras, as well as test the early versions of our image processing tools being developed for use at the asteroid Psyche.
"As the spacecraft continues its journey after the flyby, we’ll continue calibration imaging of Mars for the rest of the month as it recedes into the distance."
The journey continues
Psyche will soon resume using its solar-electric propulsion system to travel onwards to the asteroid belt.
In August 2029, Psyche will go into orbit around asteroid Psyche, which is thought to be a section of the building block of the core of an early planet.
The spacecraft will then begin mapping the asteroid and gathering vital science data. It could provide scientists with a unique view of the interior of rocky planets like Earth.
"We’ve been anticipating the Mars flyby for years, but now it’s complete. We can thank the Red Planet for giving our spacecraft a critical gravitational slingshot farther into the Solar System,” says Lindy Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator for Psyche at the University of California, Berkeley.
"Onward to the asteroid Psyche!"
