Another feather in MOM's cap! Mangalyaan sends pictures of Mars moon Phobos

New Delhi, Oct 15: It seems ISRO's effort is going in right direction. Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) is working as per their expectations. Reportedly, Mars Color camera has sent pictures of Phobos - the largest of the two natural satellites that orbit around Mars. This feat has come in light almost 20 days after it successfully entered the orbit of the Red Planet.

ISRO, the national space agency, has shared a tiny footage on its social networking site with a caption, "The larger of the two Martian moons, Phobos, is seen travelling west to east over Mars in its typical orbit."

The images were taken from an altitude of 66,275 km above the surface of the Red Planet, it said. Phobos along with the Mars' another natural satellite Deimos was discovered by mankind in 1877.

According to NASA, Phobos, which is 27 by 22 by 18 km in diameter orbits the red planet three times a day.Phobos was nearing Mars at a rate of 1.8 m every hundred years and at that rate, it would either crash into the red planet in 50 million years or break up into a ring, according to the US national space agency.

Earlier, on September 24, Mangalyaan successfully entered Martian orbit . It was really a very proud moment for every Indian. The greatness of this extraordinary feat could be well understood by the fact that India is only country in the world which achieved it in its maiden attempt.

After achieving this milestone, India has placed itself in elite club of Martian explorers with United States, European Space Agency and former Soviet Union. Even big Asian giants China and Japan has not been lucky till now.

OneIndia News

(with inputs from PTI)