Mangalyaan Captures Image of Mars’ Biggest Moon Phobos: ISRO

The image was captured on 1 July, when the probe was around 7,200 km from Mars and around 4,200 km from Phobos.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@isro)

The Mars Colour Camera (MCC) onboard the Mars Orbiter Mission, known as Mangalyaan, has captured the image of Phobos, the closest and biggest moon of Mars, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced on Friday, 3 July.

The image was captured on 1 July, when the probe was around 7,200 km from Mars and around 4,200 km from Phobos, the organisation said.

"Spatial resolution of the image is 210 m. This is a composite image generated from six MCC frames and has been colour corrected," ISRO said in a statement.

"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 & Grildrig) are also seen in this image," it added.

ISRO's Mangalyaan mission was launched in November 2013 and was placed in the orbit around Mars in September 2014. With Mangalyaan, ISRO became the fourth space agency to reach Mars, the others being those of the US, Russia and Europe.