Pics: Mangalyaan sends picture of dust storm in Red planet

Bangalore, Sept 30: India's

Orbiter sent its first complete picture of the Red Planet with regional dust storm activities, said

. Its official Facebook page said,"Regional dust storm activities over northern hemisphere of Mars - captured by Mars Color Camera on-board Mars Orbiter Mission (

)."It further added that the images were taken from an altitude of 74,500 km from the surface of Mars.

The MOM had sent its first images of the planet on Thursday, just a day after creating history by becoming the only one to be successful in reaching Mars in the first attempt itself.

MOM in Conversation:

The main aim of MARS is to study the Martian surface and scan the atmosphere for Methane, which is an indicator of life. The Rs 450 crore, also the cheapest, planetary spacecraft is equipped with five instruments- a colour camera, a sensor to track methane or marsh gas, and a thermal-imaging spectrometer to map the surface and mineral wealth of the planet.

The orbiter will keep moving in an elliptical path for the next six months and will continue sending pictures from there. The spacecraft was launched on a home-made PSLV rocket from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on November 5 last year. It had escaped the earth's gravitational field on December 1 and was placed in the orbit on September 24.

OneIndia News