ISRO’s Mars rover captures never-seen-before images of Mars’ moon, Phobos

ISRO’s Mars rover, Mangalyaan, recently captured the images of Mars’ elusive moon, Phobos. ISRO declassified these images on Friday and released them. It was captured on the Mars Colour Camera (MCC) aboard the Mars Orbiter, from a distance of 4,200 KM.

“Spatial resolution of the image is 210 m. This is a composite image generated from 6 MCC frames and has been color corrected,” ISRO said in an update along with the image.

“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. Stickney, the largest crater on Phobos along with the other craters (Shklovsky, Roche and Grildrig) are also seen in this image,” ISRO further said.

According to ISRO, “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 Mangalyaan mission was launched on November 5, 2013, by PSLV-C25, an expandable launch system, and entered the Martian orbit on September 24, 2014, in its first attempt. This MOM mission aims at studying the Martian surface and mineral composition as well as scan its atmosphere for methane (an indicator of life on Mars).