ISRO's Mangalyaan captures image of Phobos, 'mysterious' moon of Mars

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has achieved yet another feat for India's technological progress in the space sector. Now, the Mars Colour Camera (MCC) aboard ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission, also called the Mangalyaan, has managed to capture an image of Phobos, the biggest moon of Mars which the ISRO described as 'mysterious'.

"A recent image of the mysterious moon of Mars, Phobos, as captured by India's Mars Orbiter Mission," read a tweet posted by ISRO.

A recent image of the mysterious moon of Mars, Phobos, as captured by India's Mars Orbiter Mission

For more details visit https://t.co/oFMxLxdign@MarsOrbiter #ISRO pic.twitter.com/5IJuSDBggx

— ISRO (@isro) July 3, 2020

"Mars Colour Camera (MCC) onboard Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) has imaged Phobos, the closest and biggest moon of Mars, on 1st July when MOM was about 7200 km from Mars and at 4200 km from Phobos," detailed a post by ISRO on its official website.

The post elaborated, "Spatial resolution of the image is 210 m. This is a composite image generated from 6 MCC frames and has been colour corrected."

India's premier space agency further explained that Phobos is largely believed to be made up of carbonaceous chondrites.

"The violent phase that Phobos has encountered is seen in the large section gouged out from a past collision (Stickney crater) and bouncing ejecta," the post detailed, "Stickney, the largest crater on Phobos along with the other craters (Shklovsky, Roche & Grildrig) are also seen in this image."

Mars has two moons, with the innermost and the larger of the two being Phobos, while the other being Deimos. Both moons were discovered in 1877 by American astronomer Asaph Hall.

Phobos is named after the Greek god Phobos, a son of Ares (Mars) and Aphrodite (Venus) and the personification of fear (cf. phobia).

The natural satellite is just 6,000 km from the Martian surface, making it the only known moon that is this close to its primary body. It is so close that it orbits Mars much faster than Mars rotates.

The defining surface feature is the large impact crater, Stickney, which takes up a substantial proportion of the moon's surface.

The Mars Orbiter Mission was launched on November 5, 2013. Mangalyaan had entered Mars orbit on September 24, 2014, after travelling for over 10 months to cover the distance of 666 million km to reach the destination.

It is equipped with five instruments, including a sensor to track methane or marsh gas, a colour camera, and a thermal imaging spectrometer to map the surface and mineral wealth of the red planet. MOM was also adjudged one of the 25 innovations made in 2014 by 'TIME' magazine, which described it as a technological feat that will allow India to flex its "interplanetary muscles."

In its experience of orbiting the Mars for five years, the Mars Orbiter achieved stunning feats- The 1,350kg weighing (on Earth) craft had taken pictures one of the two Martian moons -- Phobos, while it was travelling west to east over Mars in its typical orbit, took pictures of regional dust storm activities over northern hemisphere of Mars, full disc image of the planet, showing Elysium - the second largest volcanic province on the natural satellite.

The 'Mangalyaan' mission made India the first country in the world to successfully launch its mission to Mars on the very first try. Mangalyaan cost Rs 450 crore making it the cheapest inter-planetary mission ever. It was completed in just 15 months.