New NASA imagery has revealed a growing Martian “crescent” and surface details on the Red Planet as the agency’s Psyche spacecraft recently completed a flyby of Earth’s nearby planetary neighbor.
Launched on October 13, 2023, Psyche is currently on its way toward a rendezvous with a metal-rich asteroid after which the space probe was named. Now, in a series of composite images captured as the spacecraft flew past Mars during a gravity assist in early May, the growing crescent shape of the Red Planet is shown in successive views of Earth’s nearby planetary neighbor.
“After these views were captured by the spacecraft’s multispectral imager instrument, Mars began to overfill the field of view as Psyche made close approach with the planet and captured a series of high-resolution images of the surface,” read a NASA statement accompanying the imagery.
In several of the images, Mars appears as a thin sliver due to the high phase angle of approach as Psyche made its way toward the planet. In the days that followed, the crescent is shown as it appears to “grow” as more sunlight illuminates its surface.
A Detailed Glimpse of the Martian Surface Captured by Psyche
The recent crescent features weren’t all that Psyche captured during its recent near approach to Mars. In additional images released by the American space agency, the Martian surface appeared in colorful views obtained by the spacecraft’s multispectral imager instrument.
The resulting “mosaic” was created from four separate images acquired near the end of Psyche’s recent visit, shown in enhanced color that highlights several details visible on the Martian surface.
Traveling along a southwesterly path with relation to the Martian poles, the mosaic imagery appears slightly blurry, as it represents close to six minutes of travel above the planet. According to NASA, pixel scale resolution in the imagery “varies from 381 meters per pixel on the right to 440 meters per pixel on the left.”
Color enhancements to the imagery, collected with the imager’s green, blue, and near-infrared filters, reveal additional details about the various features of the volcanic region of Mars that Psyche flew over on May 15, 2026, known as the Iapygia region.
This area comprises part of the Martian southern highlands, and in the recent imagery, Fournier crater—the largest shown in the new imagery—can be seen, alongside hills, cliffs, and other features, including the irregular Oenotria Scopuli cliff system, forming one side of the boundary of a massive ancient impact feature on the Red Planet.
Additional details about the new imagery, as well as information about Psyche’s mission, can be found on NASA’s official mission page.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.