The Growing Crescent of Mars as NASA’s Psyche Mission Approaches

NASA News 17 Jul 2026 2 min read

AI Insight

NASA's Psyche spacecraft captured a series of images showing Mars as a growing crescent during its gravity assist maneuver between May 2-15, 2026. The spacecraft approached Mars from a high phase angle, causing the planet to appear as a thin crescent illuminated by reflected sunlight, with the crescent appearing larger as Psyche drew closer. The multispectral imager documented the approach until Mars overfilled the field of view during close approach, when high-resolution surface images were obtained.

Why it matters

This gravity assist maneuver is a critical navigation technique that uses Mars' gravity to alter Psyche's trajectory toward its primary destination, the metal-rich asteroid Psyche. The imaging sequence provides valuable observational data of Mars while demonstrating the spacecraft's operational capabilities during planetary flybys.

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8/10Peer-reviewedAstronomy & Space

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The Growing Crescent of Mars as NASA’s Psyche Mission Approaches

A time-lapse composite against a black background shows a series of concentric, glowing orange crescent planetary horizons that expand outward from a small central point, illustrating a spacecraft's approach during a Mars flyby.

PIA26586

Credits:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

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The Growing Crescent of Mars as NASA’s Psyche Mission Approaches

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Description

This composite of images taken by NASA’s Psyche mission shows the crescent of Mars grow as the spacecraft approached the planet for a gravity assist from May 2 to May 15, 2026. The series begins with the smallest crescent at the center of the of the image as Mars is farthest from the spacecraft, and progressively grows as the spacecraft gets closer. 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.

Because Psyche approached Mars from a high phase angle, the planet appeared as a thin crescent in the days running up to the close approach, lit by sunlight reflecting off its surface. Using these views of the approach, close approach, and departure from Mars, the Psyche team compiled a stunning time-lapse of its entire Mars encounter.

For more information about NASA’s Psyche mission, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/psyche/

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