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A common road trip activity is to stop at a roadside attraction to see something really cool. It turns out that NASA spacecraft do this from time to time, too. The Psyche spacecraft, on its way to the asteroid belt to study the asteroid of the same name, stopped near Mars and, among other things, captured some impressive images of the planet as it flew by.
The overflight happened on May 15With the idea that Psyche will use Mars as a gravitational slingshot to change the direction of the spacecraft and send it on its merry way. However, NASA rarely lets opportunities like this slip through its fingers, so while Psyche was flying by Mars, NASA had the spacecraft measure the Red Planet using every instrument it had on board, and it captured all kinds of data and many stunning images.
The big winner is a series of time-lapse images the spacecraft took daily as it approached Mars, which were then stitched together. The final image forms an eye-like shape, making it unique thanks to the angle at which Pscyhe approached Mars. The spacecraft did not stop there, and took a long period of time to the planet during its flyby.
“By reaching this high crescent, only about 4% of Mars was illuminated, however, we were able to see the surrounding atmosphere glowing,” said Hannah Zigo of Psyche’s Multispectral Imaging Operations team at Arizona State University. YouTube video.
Psyche’s imaging team captured a time-lapse snapshot of Psyche as it passed by Mars, from May 2 to May 31, when the planet was no longer visible. They too chest a Time lapse video that This month-long flyby sums up in 1 minute and 15 seconds some of the best images you’ll ever see of our red neighbor from space.
Other sciences also occurred
NASA’s spacecraft took in as much data as it could during its short flyby, measuring everything from the interaction of Mars’ atmosphere with solar wind to the neutrons bombarding the surface of the red planet, thanks to its thin atmosphere. Psyche’s instruments were not necessarily intended to measure the planet, but Mars served as an excellent testing platform for the spacecraft’s various instruments.
“The mission’s imaging, magnetometer, gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer teams worked overtime to take full advantage of this planetary encounter, and all of the instruments achieved outstanding results,” said Lindy Elkins-Tanton, Psyche principal investigator at UC Berkeley. statement.
The team did not expect to make any real discoveries, as the planet’s surface has been studied intensively for decades, but the data collected certainly helps researchers study Mars more precisely. The instruments did their best, but the photographer was definitely the A-game.
“The imager performed admirably, providing some rare views of the Red Planet,” said Jim Bell, Psyche imager lead at Arizona State University. “Besides the obvious beauty of the images, we were also able to fully test their calibration and sensitivity to scattered light, including picking out the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos from a very long distance as part of the satellite search exercise we will use on the asteroid Psyche to search for any small moons there.”
For those of us here on Earth who aren’t part of the Psyche team, our reward for everyone’s hard work are some really excellent candidates for desktop wallpaper and Another excellent overview From our red neighbor. The Psyche meteorite is expected to arrive in August 2029.
