Mars mission sends its first image of earth

The Mars Orbiter Mission, more commonly known as Mangalyaan has sent its first image of earth taken by the Mars Colour Camera. It clearly shows India, the Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal , the Himalayas and the Indo-Gangetic plain. Vanita Srivastava reports.

This-image-was-taken-on-Tuesday-at-around-1-50pm-from-a-height-of-almost-70-000-km-above-earth-and-has-a-spatial-resolution-of-3-5-km-Isro-Photo

The Mars Orbiter Mission, more commonly known as Mangalyaan has sent its first image of earth taken by the Mars Colour Camera.

'We have a nice little thing to share with all of you... yesterday in the process of testing our payloads we turned the Mars Color Camera towards the Earth and switched it on... and here is the first ever image of Earth Taken by Mars Color Camera,' announced the space agency on its Facebook page of Isro Mars Orbiter Mission.

'This image was taken on Tuesday at around 1.50pm from a height of almost 70,000 km above earth and has a spatial resolution of 3.5 km... We are certain we're going to get some great shots in the orbit of Mars,' the message reads.

'This is not a planned process and is done as and when it can be. The command is done from our ground station near Bangalore. We hope to take a few more photos before the spacecraft moves out of earth's orbit,' said a spokesperson of Isro.

The photo clearly shows India, the Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal , the Himalayas and the Indo-Gangetic plain.

The spacecraft will move out of the earth's orbit on December 01 at around 0023 hours. It will then take a 300 days voyage before entering into Mars orbit in September 2014.

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