ISRO MoM: MOM eyes the limb of Mars

ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission captures the limb of Mars with the Mars Colour Camera from an altitude of 8449 km soon after achieving orbit on Sept. 23/24, 2014 . 

Credit: ISRO

India's maiden interplanetary voyager, the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) has transmitted a breathtaking new image eyeing the limb of Mars and its atmosphere against the blackness of space.

The beautiful Martian image is only MOM's second since successfully braking into orbit during the 'history creating' insertion maneuver days ago on Sept. 23/24.

The MOM orbiter was designed and developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO),

India's space agency, which released the image on Sept 25, about a day after MOM arrived.

The limb image was taken using MOM's Mars Colour Camera (MCC) from an altitude of 8449 kilometers and shows more of an 'Orange Planet' rather than a 'Red Planet.'

"A shot of Martian atmosphere. I'm getting better at it. No pressure," tweeted ISRO at MOM's newly established twitter account after entering orbit.

The image has a spatial resolution of 439 meters and is centered around Lat: 20.01N and Lon:31.54E.

MOM's goal is to study Mars atmosphere , surface environments, morphology, and mineralogy with a 15 kg (33 lb) suite of five indigenously built science instruments.

It will also sniff for methane, a potential marker for biological activity.

"The view is nice up here," ISRO tweeted.