The image was taken on July 1 when MOM was approximately 7,200 km from Mars and 4,200 km from Phobos.
Bengaluru:
The Mars color camera (MCC) aboard the Mars Orbiter mission of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) captured the image of Phobos, the closest and largest moon of Mars.
The image was taken on July 1 when MOM was approximately 7,200 km from Mars and 4,200 km from Phobos.
“The spatial resolution of the image is 210 m. It is a composite image generated from 6 MCC frames and the color of which has been corrected,” said ISRO in an update with the image. .
It is widely believed that Phobos is composed of carbonaceous chondrites.
According to ISRO, “the violent phase that Phobos encountered is seen in the large section dug by a past collision (Stickney crater) and bouncing ejectas”.
“Stickney, the largest crater in Phobos and the other craters (Shklovsky, Roche & Grildrig) are also visible in this image,” the statement said.
The mission, also known as Mangalyaan, was originally scheduled to last six months, but ISRO later said it 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, in its very first attempt, bursting into an elite club.
ISRO launched the spacecraft during its nine-month odyssey on a PSLV rocket from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on November 5, 2013.
It had escaped the gravitational field of the Earth on December 1, 2013. The MOM mission of the crore Rs 450 aims to study the Martian surface and the mineral composition as well as to analyze its atmosphere for methane (an indicator of life on Mars) .
The Mars Orbiter has five scientific instruments: the Lyman alpha photometer (LAP), the methane sensor for Mars (MSM), the neutral composition analyzer of the planet Mars (MENCA), the color camera Mars (MCC) and the thermal infrared imaging spectrometer (TIS).
