India’s Mars Orbiter Mission has been in the red planet’s orbit for almost 150 days. Though it's been quiet lately, we finally have something new to be excited about: stunning photos of the planet's two moons.
Earlier this week, Emily Lakdawalla of a US NGO called The Planetary Society published some previously unreleased photos from the Mars Orbiter Mission in the abstract of a paper for a forthcoming conference. The photos depict Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos.
This photo of Phobos was taken by MOM on October 14. "Phobos is the larger of Mars' two moons and is 27 by 22 by 18 km in diameter," according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "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."
It’s in a dark brown against the orange of Mars.
Deimos, meanwhile, is the smaller of Mars' two moons. "Being only 15 by 12 by 11 km in size, Deimos whirls around Mars every 30 hours,” NASA said. The Mars Orbiter Mission is able to reach 77,000 kms above Mars and hence is able to photograph the rarely seen side of Deimos that faces away from the planet.
There has only been one previous photo taken from the same perspective.
This photo was taken by NASA's Mariner 9, which reached Mars in November 1971. It returned 7,329 photos over the course of its mission, which concluded in October 1972. Lakdawalla has put together five of the best views of Deimos to give a nice comparison.
We welcome your comments at
[email protected].
Earlier this week, Emily Lakdawalla of a US NGO called The Planetary Society published some previously unreleased photos from the Mars Orbiter Mission in the abstract of a paper for a forthcoming conference. The photos depict Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos.
This photo of Phobos was taken by MOM on October 14. "Phobos is the larger of Mars' two moons and is 27 by 22 by 18 km in diameter," according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "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."
It’s in a dark brown against the orange of Mars.
Deimos, meanwhile, is the smaller of Mars' two moons. "Being only 15 by 12 by 11 km in size, Deimos whirls around Mars every 30 hours,” NASA said. The Mars Orbiter Mission is able to reach 77,000 kms above Mars and hence is able to photograph the rarely seen side of Deimos that faces away from the planet.
There has only been one previous photo taken from the same perspective.
This photo was taken by NASA's Mariner 9, which reached Mars in November 1971. It returned 7,329 photos over the course of its mission, which concluded in October 1972. Lakdawalla has put together five of the best views of Deimos to give a nice comparison.
