On July 1, ISRO‘s Mars Orbiter Mission using Mars Colour Camera (MCC) has captured the image of Phobos, the closest and biggest moon of Mars. The image was captured when MOM was about 7,200 km from Mars and 4,200 km from Phobos.
Phobos is the larger of Mars’ two moons. It orbits Mars three times a day and is so close to the planet’s surface that in some locations on Mars, it cannot always be seen.
The Phobos is believed to be made up of carbonaceous chondrites. 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.
Mars Orbiter Mission is India’s first interplanetary mission to planet Mars with an orbiter craft designed to orbit Mars in an elliptical orbit. The Mission is primarily a technological mission considering the critical mission operations and stringent requirements on propulsion and other bus systems of spacecraft. It has been configured to carry out observation of the physical features of mars.
The spatial resolution of the image is 210 m. This is a composite image generated from 6 MCC frames and has been color corrected.