Mars revealed like never before by NASA's Psyche spacecraft in breathtaking new images

This enhanced-color image of the double-ring Huygens Crater was captured by NASA’s multispectral imager instrument during the Psyche mission. The image reveals vivid hues, which are likely the result of the contrasting compositional properties of bedrock, sand, and dust in the Martian terrain. The image was captured by Psyche's Imager A on May 15, 2026, at 1:18 PM PDT.

The image captures the rugged Martian surface. A closer look reveals several wind streaks stretching across the Syrtis Major region, formed by strong winds blowing over the rims of impact craters. According to NASA, the image scale is nearly 1,200 feet (360 meters) per pixel. This particular image was taken by the Psyche spacecraft on May 15, 2026.

After NASA’s Psyche spacecraft made a close approach with the Red Planet to execute a gravity assist maneuver, it captured a high-resolution snap of Mars's south polar cap. This particular region contains a rich deposit of water ice, which has intrigued scientists for decades. The image was captured by Psyche's Imager A on May 15, 2026, at around 1:53 PM PDT.

This image was the first near-full view of Mars from the Psyche spacecraft. As the spacecraft made its closest approach to the Red Planet on May 15, 2026, the camera captured a vast swath of the Martian surface, extending northward from the south polar cap to the Valles Marineris canyon system.

NASA’s Psyche spacecraft captured this crescent view of Mars on May 15, 2026, at about 5:03 AM PDT. Because the spacecraft approached the Red Planet from a high phase angle, only a sliver of Mars was illuminated by the Sun. Interestingly, this was the final time Psyche’s multispectral imager was able to capture the entire planet in a single frame before the Red Planet grew large enough to overfill the camera’s field of view.

This colorized image was captured by the Psyche spacecraft on May 3, 2026. The picture appears slightly pixelated because it was taken from a mind-boggling 3 million miles (4.8 million kilometers) away. The spacecraft approached Mars for a gravity assist on May 15 to adjust its trajectory, propelling it toward the metal-rich and eponymous asteroid Psyche for a planned arrival in 2029.