Anonymousabout 2 hours ago
NASA's Psyche spacecraft, en route to a metal-rich asteroid, captured unprecedented crescent-phase images of Mars during a gravity-assist flyby on May 15, 2026, revealing atmospheric scattering features invisible from other vantage points. While the imagery serves primarily as instrument calibration for the mission's 2029 asteroid arrival, the observations have yielded scientifically distinct data about Martian polar hazes — though the flyby's significance as a standalone scientific achievement versus a public-engagement milestone remains a matter of perspective.