In the 18 months since its launch, India’s Mars Orbiter Mission has gathered something of a cult following. It could partly be due to the stream of stunning images and updates that the spacecraft keeps sending to anyone who follows it on Twitter or Facebook.
On Friday, the mission sent home 3-D rendered images of the Valles Marineri, a canyon system on the red planet that is nearly 5,000 km long. It was a perfect Independence Day present for astronomy lovers and stargazers who got to see a beautiful and fascinating feature of a planet that has been studied by my many countries for signs of life.
Snapped from the height of nearly 2,000 km by the Mars Coloured Camera, Valles Marineris is the largest-known canyon complex in the solar system.
A 62-km wide valley called Opir Chasma can be seen bordered by high cliffs in the pictures sent by the orbiter, which entered Mars’ orbit last September after lifting off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, in November 2013.
It had earlier sent images of wrinkle ridges and craters on the surface of the planet.
Over the months, the high-resolution images MOM has related have included pictures of the Aurorae Chaos, a long terrain with irregular flat blocks. The images showed signs of fluvial activity, which means that water or similar substances could have flowed there sometime in the past.
Built at the cost of just Rs 450 crores, the orbiter still has 39 kilograms of fuel it still has left in the tanks – which could mean a few more years of breathtaking pictures, among other things.
All images taken from Indian Space Research Organisation's website.
On Friday, the mission sent home 3-D rendered images of the Valles Marineri, a canyon system on the red planet that is nearly 5,000 km long. It was a perfect Independence Day present for astronomy lovers and stargazers who got to see a beautiful and fascinating feature of a planet that has been studied by my many countries for signs of life.
Close-up of grandest canyon of all: Valles Marineris. pic.twitter.com/Sn4Kc2svfv
— ISRO's Mars Orbiter (@MarsOrbiter) March 5, 2015Snapped from the height of nearly 2,000 km by the Mars Coloured Camera, Valles Marineris is the largest-known canyon complex in the solar system.
A 62-km wide valley called Opir Chasma can be seen bordered by high cliffs in the pictures sent by the orbiter, which entered Mars’ orbit last September after lifting off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, in November 2013.
It had earlier sent images of wrinkle ridges and craters on the surface of the planet.
Over the months, the high-resolution images MOM has related have included pictures of the Aurorae Chaos, a long terrain with irregular flat blocks. The images showed signs of fluvial activity, which means that water or similar substances could have flowed there sometime in the past.
Built at the cost of just Rs 450 crores, the orbiter still has 39 kilograms of fuel it still has left in the tanks – which could mean a few more years of breathtaking pictures, among other things.
All images taken from Indian Space Research Organisation's website.
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