A day after India launched the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) released the first images taken of the Red Planet using its onboard Mars Colour Camera. According to ISRO this is the 'First Light. ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission captures its first image of Mars, taken from a height of 7300 kilometers, with 376 meter spatial resolution.'
A comment, 'The view is nice up here', accompanied the image which was also released on ISRO's Twitter handle.
The camera takes photos in tri-colour and will be used to provide context for the scientific results. (Mangalyaan - From Report to Reality in Three Years)
The picture has the characteristic red hue, since the Martian soil is rich in iron. It shows the billions of year old Martian surface with impact craters and possibly heads of dead volcanoes. The dark patch seems to be a mineral rich part or a portion where light has not penetrated when the photo was taken. The streaks with a head in the darkened patch are either large 'dust devils' or Martian sand storms that blow over the surface of mars or some artefacts.
Experts say these photos are 'excellent' but if co-ordinates were also released by ISRO these would be much more meaningful.
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