Mars, as Seen Through Indian Eyes

The Wire Staff

India's Mars Orbiter Mission has now been at it for almost one year, having slipped into a highly elliptical orbit around the Red Planet on September 24, 2014. While the primary mission ended after six months, the orbiter has been allowed to continue — which it has quite healthily, taking intermittent pictures of the planet using its colour camera and continuing to make observations of its thin atmosphere. It also joins a fleet of American robots currently studying Mars, including MAVEN, a NASA satellite that was launched in the same window that ISRO sent MOM through. On India's Independence Day, ISRO released a commemorative picture of Ophir Chasma, a 317-km long canyon.

Here are 10 other images to experience Mars through the orbiter's eyes.

Phobos, one of the two moons of Mars, silhouetted against an eerie Martian surface. Source: ISRO

Mars. The image was possible because of MOM’s highly elliptical orbit that takes it, at one point, 77,000 km out. Source: ISRO

Arsia Mons, a mountain on Mars. Source: ISRO

Ophir Chasma, a 317-km long canyon on the Red Planet. Source: ISRO

Regions around the Huygens Crater. Source: ISRO

Tyrrhenus Mons, a large volcanic mountain on Mars. Source: ISRO

Hesperia Planum, a lava plain on Mars that is also home to the majestic Tyrrhenus Mons. Source: ISRO

Regions around the Comas Sola crater. Source: ISRO

Regions around the famous Gale Crater. Source: ISRO

This article went live on August nineteenth, two thousand fifteen, at twenty-one minutes past five in the evening.

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