\u201cThe mission\u2019s 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,\u201d said Lindy Elkins-Tanton, principal investigator for Psyche at the University of California, Berkeley. \u201cWe didn\u2019t anticipate big discoveries, given how extensively the planet has been studied, but we did complement Mars science with the data we collected through Psyche\u2019s unique perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This video introduces the team behind the imaging and instrument calibration efforts during NASA Psyche\u2019s flyby of Mars on May 15, 2026. The spacecraft used the planet\u2019s gravitational field for a valuable boost, but it was also able to do a little science along the way.
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Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/ASU\/True Story Films<\/p>\n
Peppered by Mars neutrons<\/p>\n
The gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer, which will help scientists determine the chemical elements that make up the asteroid\u2019s surface material, got a real workout during the flyby. As high-energy cosmic rays<\/a> bombard a planetary body, the elements on the surface absorb the energy, emitting neutrons and gamma rays of varying energy levels. By measuring these emissions, scientists can match them to properties of known elements to determine what the body is made of.<\/p>\n While the flyby altitude of 2,864 miles (4,609 kilometers) was too far away to measure gamma rays from Mars, hopes were high that neutrons escaping the planet\u2019s surface and atmosphere could be detected.<\/p>\n \u201cAround 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,\u201d said David Lawrence, the science lead for Psyche\u2019s spectrometer at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. \u201cAs expected, we didn\u2019t detect gamma rays from Mars, but we put the instrument through its paces, and it performed excellently.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n Magnetic Mars<\/p>\n Like the gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer, the mission\u2019s magnetometer<\/a> has been operating since the spacecraft\u2019s journey began with its 2023 launch. Designed to measure the asteroid Psyche\u2019s magnetic field, the instrument will help the mission test the idea that the object is the metallic core of a planetesimal \u2014 a building block of a rocky planet.<\/p>\n While the instrument has constantly been measuring the solar wind\u2019s magnetic field during cruise \u2014 including when occasional coronal mass ejections<\/a> washed over the spacecraft \u2014 this is the first magnetic field signature of a celestial body that the magnetometer has measured.<\/p>\n \u201cAs 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\u2019s magnetic field,\u201d said Ben Weiss, Psyche\u2019s deputy principal investigator and the magnetometry investigation lead at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. \u201cThis flyby calibration effort validated the instrument\u2019s performance under dynamic conditions while also revealing the fascinating physics of planetary magnetism.\u201d<\/p>\n Red Planet imaging<\/p>\n Starting in early May and throughout the flyby, the spacecraft\u2019s multispectral imager \u2014 a pair of identical cameras designed to photograph the surface of the asteroid in different wavelengths of light \u2014 had been delivering views<\/a> of Mars to the mission\u2019s raw image feed<\/a>. Because of the high-phase angle<\/a> at which the spacecraft approached the planet, Mars initially appeared as a thin, bright crescent, with sunlight scattering through its atmosphere.<\/p>\n During close approach, the imager team captured detailed views of the Martian surface, including windblown craters<\/a>, the south polar ice cap<\/a>, and the large double-ringed Huygens crater<\/a>. They\u2019re all visible in a time-lapse video that captures the monthlong flyby sequence of images.<\/p>\n \u201cThe imager performed brilliantly, delivering some rarely seen views of the Red Planet,\u201d said Jim Bell, the Psyche imager instrument lead at Arizona State University in Tempe. \u201cBesides 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\u2019ll use at the asteroid Psyche to look for any moonlets there.\u201d<\/p>\n To help characterize and calibrate the imager, the team is comparing flyby images with imaging data from other missions at Mars, including NASA\u2019s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter, and Curiosity and Perseverance rovers, along with ESA\u2019s (European Space Agency\u2019s) Mars Express and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, and the United Arab Emirates Mars Mission\u2019s Hope Orbiter. \u00a0<\/p>\n The Psyche spacecraft is now headed directly toward its target asteroid, located in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. \u201cThis gravity assist was years in the making, and the navigation team nailed it \u2014 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,\u201d said Bob Mase, Psyche\u2019s project manager at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. \u201cThe spacecraft is in great shape, and we\u2019re on schedule to resume sustained thrusting with the solar-electric propulsion system<\/a> later this fall.\u201d<\/p>\n July 17, 2026 1:07PM<\/p>\n More from Psyche<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This time-lapse video shows the approach, close approach, and departure of NASA\u2019s Psyche spacecraft at Mars as it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,17753,1845,283887,49100,66,306,34574],"class_list":["post-808766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-jet-propulsion-laboratory","tag-mars","tag-psyche-asteroid","tag-psyche-mission","tag-science","tag-space","tag-the-solar-system"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/NASA_logo.png\"\/){kind=logo}
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