Phobos - ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission Captures Mars' Biggest And Closest Moon - On Image

Phobos is Mars¡¯ closest and biggest moon and Indian Space Research Organisation¡¯s (ISRO) Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) has captured it on camera. ISRO recently released the image captured by MOM, also known as Mangalyaan, that was taken on July 1 when the orbiter was about 7,300 kms from Mars and around 4,200 kms away from Phobos.

ISRO

On its website ISRO mentions that the the spatial resolution of the image is 210 meters and the ¡®composite image has been generated using six Mars Color Camera (MCC) frames¡¯.

One the right-hand side of the image one notices Stickney, the most prominent feature of the Martian Moon ¡ª a crater whose impact caused streak patterns across the surface. It¡¯s nearly 9 km wide and covers most of the surface.

Also Read: ISRO Mars Orbiter Mission Was Only Going To Last 6 Months, It Has Gone Past 4 Years

A recent image of the mysterious moon of Mars, Phobos, as captured by India's Mars Orbiter Mission

For more details visit https://t.co/oFMxLxdign@MarsOrbiter #ISRO pic.twitter.com/5IJuSDBggx

¡ª ISRO (@isro) July 3, 2020

Apart from that the MOM image also captured smaller craters - Roche, Shklovksy and Grildrig. Of the three Grildrig is the largest and has a width of 2.6 km; Roche is 2.3 km in diameter and Shklovsky is 2 km wide.

Another thing to note is the Mars Orbiter Mission is still sending back pictures nearly six years after it was inserted in orbit around Mars. The Mangalyaan had originally been designed for a mission life of six months!

Mars moon Phobos

Even though Phobos is Mars¡¯ biggest Moon but it just has a radius of 11 kms and even then it is seven times bigger than Mars¡¯ other moon, Deimos. It orbits the planet three times a day.

Also Read: ISRO Gets Patent For Liquid Cooling And Heating Garment, Likely For Use By Indian Astronauts

NASA

According to NASA, Phobos is on a collision course for Mars. Scientists believe that it has been hit by thousands of meteorite impacts and that it is headed towards Mars at the rate of 1.8 meters every 100 years. It if doesn¡¯t break apart from the planet, with that speed, it will take another 50 million years to reach the planet.