Indian Mars mission Mangalyaan has sent its first images of the red planet, revealing a breathtaking imagery of what is known as the Grand Canyon of Mars.
"Simply breathtaking!" exclaimed an elated Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his Twitter account. A link to images released by the Indian space agency ISRO was also provided on the tweet by Mr Modi, a science and selfie enthusiast.
A high resolution image of Ophir Chasma aka 'Grand Canyon of Mars' was taken by Mangalyaan on July 19 from an altitude of 1,857 kms, according to the Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO). "The image (was) taken by Mars Colour Camera over Ophir Chasma, a canyon in the Coprates quadrangle of Mars," the ISRO said on its website.
"The word chasma has been designated by the International Astronomical Union to refer to an elongate, steepsided depression. Ophir Chasma is part of the largest canyon system in the solar system known as Valles Marineris. The walls of the chasma contain many layers and the floors contain large deposits of layered materials," it added. Indian Mars mission has effectively sealed its success by not only scaling a distance of 650,000,000 kilometres in the deep space but also starting a glitch-free operation of clicking images of the fiery planet that has fascinated the astronomers and astrologers alike. Launched on a shoestring budget of 74 million dollars on November 5, 2013, compared with NASA's 671 million dollar Maven Mars orbiter, India's Mangalyaan accomplished a jaw-dropping feat of being successful in its very first attempt by reaching Mars on 24 September 2014. In comparison, China's Yinghou-1, launched in 2011 from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a mission to Mar's moon Phobos, was declared lost within ten days of its taking off. Until, it re-entered earth's atmosphere out of blue two months later, rapidly turning into a fireball that was eventually doused in the Pacific Ocean. A 2003 Japanese mission also fell flat before making to Mars.
