NASA released photos from the Psyche spacecraft's Mars flyby, including a striking image of the 290-mile-wide Huygens double-ring crater. The spacecraft captured the crater shortly after its closest approach, with color variations reflecting differences in dust, sand, and bedrock composition. NASA enhanced the colors to make them more pronounced for analysis.

Psyche also photographed Mars' southern pole, where permanent water ice fields appear as bright spots against the dark terrain. Before that, the craft snapped a crescent Mars from high altitude, with the planet's dusty atmosphere reflecting sunlight to make the crescent appear brighter and wider than the surface itself. The flyby brought it within 2,800 miles of Mars, closer than the planet's own moons.

Launched in October 2023, Psyche is headed to 16 Psyche, the largest known metallic asteroid in our solar system. Scientists believe studying this asteroid could reveal details about how Earth's core formed. After reaching its destination in 2029, the spacecraft will orbit and observe for two years.