NASA's Psyche mission recently captured an image of Mars. This happened on May 3, 2026, when the spacecraft was about 3 million miles (4.8 million kilometers) from the planet.
The Psyche spacecraft is heading for a gravity assist from Mars on May 15. This maneuver will boost its speed and adjust its path towards the asteroid Psyche, where it is expected to arrive in 2029.
Mars as a Crescent
The spacecraft is approaching Mars from an angle where the planet appears as a thin crescent. This is similar to how our own Moon looks during its new Moon phase. From this view, the Sun is "above" both Mars and Psyche, but out of the camera's frame.
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Atmospheric Dust and Icy Caps
The amount of dust in Mars' atmosphere can change quickly. This made it hard to predict how bright the crescent would be before the image was taken. Because Mars has a dusty atmosphere, the scattered sunlight makes the crescent appear to extend further around the planet than it would without an atmosphere, like our Moon.
Interestingly, there's a gap on the right side of the extended crescent. This gap matches the location of Mars' icy north polar cap. It's winter there, and mission specialists think seasonal clouds and hazes might be forming. These could be blocking the atmospheric dust from scattering sunlight as it does elsewhere around the planet.
The Psyche mission's imager team will continue to capture and analyze similar images as the spacecraft gets closer to Mars on May 15. These images help calibrate the cameras and check their performance in flight. This is also a practice run for when the spacecraft approaches the asteroid Psyche in 2029.
Deep Dive & References
NASA’s Psyche Mission - NASA Science
