NASA's Psyche Images Stars, Jovian System

NASA's Psyche spacecraft captured multiple star and planet images in late January 2025 that include notable appearances by Mars, Jupiter, and the Jovian moons Io, Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa. The planned observation by Psyche's imaging instrument was part of a periodic maintenance and calibration test for the twin cameras that make up the imager instrument. Scientists on the imaging team, led by Arizona State University, also took images of the bright stars Vega and Canopus, which have served as standard calibration sources for astronomers for decades. The team is also using the data to assess the effects of minor wiggles or "jitter" in the spacecraft's pointing system as it points the cameras to different places in the sky. The observations of Jupiter and Mars also help the team determine how the cameras respond to solar system objects that shine by reflected sunlight, just like the Psyche asteroid. The starfield pictures shown here are long-exposure (five-second) images captured by each camera. By over-exposing Jupiter to bring out some of the background stars in the Taurus constellation, the imagers were able to capture Jupiter's fainter Galilean moons as well. The image was captured by the Psyche mission's primary camera, Imager-A, on Jan. 30. The image was obtained using the camera's "clear" filter, to provide maximum sensitivity for both bright and faint stars and solar system objects. https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA26563