Image credits: ISRO | Twitter
BENGALURU: The Mars On-board color camera (MCC) Isro‘s Mars Orbiter Mission has captured the image of Phobos, the largest and closest moon on Mars.
The image was taken on July 1 when MOM was about 7,200 km from Mars and 4,200 km from Phobos.
“The spatial resolution of the image is 210m. This is a composite image generated from 6 MCC frames and the color has been corrected,” Isro said in an update along with the image.
Phobos is largely believed to be made up of carbonaceous chondrites.
According to Isro, “the violent phase that Phobos has encountered is seen in the large section derived from a past collision (Stickney crater) and a bouncing ejection.”
“Stickney, the largest crater in Phobos along with the other craters (Shklovsky, Roche and Grildrig) are also seen in this image,” he said.
The mission, also known as Mangalyaan, was originally supposed to last six months, but Isro later said he had enough fuel to last “many years.”
On September 24, 2014, the country successfully placed the Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft into orbit around the red planet, on its first attempt, entering an elite club.
Isro had launched the spacecraft on his nine-month odyssey on a home-grown PSLV rocket from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on November 5, 2013.
He had escaped Earth’s gravitational field on December 1, 2013.
The Rs 450-crore MOM mission aims to study the Martian surface and mineral composition, as well as scan its atmosphere for methane (an indicator of life on Mars).
The Mars Orbiter has five scientific instruments: Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP), Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM), Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyzer (MENCA), Mars Color Camera (MCC), and Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS)
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