NASA has released a mesmerising video showing images captured by a spacecraft as it flew past Mars.
The Psyche spacecraft is on its way to visit and study asteroid Psyche, which is located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
That's what happened during Psyche's Mars flyby.
A false-colour view of Mars using data captured by NASA's Psyche spacecraft as it flew by the planet on 15 May 2026.
This Mars flyby marked the first magnetic field signature of a celestial body the magnetometer has measured.
NASA has released a mesmerising video showing images captured by a spacecraft as it flew past Mars.
The Psyche spacecraft is on its way to visit and study asteroid Psyche, which is located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
It's expected to reach the asteroid in July 2029, but in May 2026, it made a close pass of Mars.
The resulting images and video show what it would be like to skim over the Martian surface, from a distance of 4,609 km (2,864 miles).
As Psyche approached Mars, the Red Planet initially appeared as a crescent, due to the spacecraft's position and the Mars's angle, relative to the Sun.
But once the spacecraft got closer, it was able to capture detailed views of the Martian surface, including craters, the planet's south polar ice cap (yes, Mars has ice caps!) and the enormous, double-ringed Huygens crater.
The images were captured throughout the duration of the flyby, which lasted a month.
A Red Planet boost on a long journey
Psyche's ultimate destination might be the asteroid Psyche, but spacecraft journeying across the Solar System don't simply fly in a straight line to their target.
In order to conserve the spacecraft's fuel, engineers often schedule 'gravity assist manoeuvres', which invole using a large planet's gravitational pull to give the spacecraft a boost.
The gravitational pull of a planet can also be used to slow a spacecraft down or even to tweak its trajectory. That's what happened during Psyche's Mars flyby.
As well as this, the flyby was a chance for the team to test out Psyche's science instruments, in preparation for its arrival at the asteroid in 2029.
Testing an asteroid-hunter's science suite
Psyche is equipped with a multispectral imager, which is a pair of cameras designed to photograph the surface of the asteroid in different wavelengths of light.
These are the cameras that captured the views of Mars during the flyby, giving Psyche scientists the chance to confirm the instruments are working as they should be.
The team say the instruments operated as designed and delivered data that matches what planetary scientists already know about Mars, as well as revealing some new insights about the Red Planet.
"The mission’s imager, magnetometer, and gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer teams worked overtime to make full use of this planetary encounter, and all instruments delivered great results," says Lindy Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator for Psyche at the University of California, Berkeley.
"We didn’t anticipate big discoveries, given how extensively the planet has been studied, but we did complement Mars science with the data we collected through Psyche’s unique perspective."
Mars's cratered surface, as seen by the Psyche spacecraft during a flyby on 15 May 2026. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
One of Psyche's instruments is a gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer, which is designed to analyse the chemistry of the material on the asteroid's surface.
It was able to carry out science at Mars as Psyche flew by the Red Planet.
As high-energy cosmic rays hit a planet's surface, chemical elements on the surface absorb the energy.
Scientists can then measure emissions of neutrons and gamma rays to determine what the planet – or other celestial body – is made of.
"Around the time of Mars closest approach, the neutron spectrometer detected a count-rate enhancement close to what we anticipated. It was very gratifying to see," says David Lawrence, science lead for Psyche’s spectrometer at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
"As expected, we didn’t detect gamma rays from Mars, but we put the instrument through its paces, and it performed excellently."
A false-colour view of Mars using data captured by NASA's Psyche spacecraft as it flew by the planet on 15 May 2026. Top right is the double-ring crater Huygens, measuring , or 470 km (290 miles) in diameter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
Measuring Mars's magnetism
Another of Psyche's instruments is its magnetometer, designed to measure asteroid Psyche’s magnetic field and tell scientists whether the asteroid is indeed the metallic core of a planetesimal – i.e. a building block of a rocky planet.
This Mars flyby marked the first magnetic field signature of a celestial body the magnetometer has measured.
"As the spacecraft passed close to Mars, the magnetometer saw an intense uptick in magnetic field corresponding to the bow shock region, where the solar wind slams into the planet’s magnetic field," says Ben Weiss, Psyche’s deputy principal investigator and the magnetometry investigation lead at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"This flyby calibration effort validated the instrument’s performance under dynamic conditions while also revealing the fascinating physics of planetary magnetism."
A nearly-full Mars seen by NASA’s Psyche spacecraft shortly after its closest approach to the planet on 15 May 2026. The view extends from the south polar cap to the Valles Marineris canyon system and beyond. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
Photos of a planetary flyby
"Psyche's imager performed brilliantly, delivering some rarely seen views of the Red Planet," says Jim Bell, Psyche imager instrument lead at Arizona State University in Tempe.
"Besides the obvious beauty of the photos, we were also able to fully test its calibration and sensitivity to scattered light, including picking out the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos from very far away as a part of a practice for the satellite search that we’ll use at the asteroid Psyche to look for any moonlets there."
A crescent Mars captured by NASA's Psyche spacecraft, 15 May 2026. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU
The team is now comparing the flyby images with imaging data from other orbiter and rover missions at Mars.
Psyche, meanwhile, is headed towards its target asteroid.
"This gravity assist was years in the making, and the navigation team nailed it – Psyche flew by Mars on exactly the trajectory we needed to set us on a path to rendezvous with the asteroid in the summer of 2029,” says Bob Mase, Psyche’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
"The spacecraft is in great shape, and we’re on schedule to resume sustained thrusting with the solar-electric propulsion system later this fall."
