India's Mars orbiter camera captures stunning image of Taytay Crater

ISRO

New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has recently released a stunning image of Taytay Crater on Mars, captured by its Mars Colour Camera (MCC) onboard Mars Orbiter spacecraft.

According to ISRO, the spectacular image was taken on 13th August 2015 at an altitude of 3419 km with a resolution of 170 m.

The camera has beamed many breathtaking pictures of the Martian surface and its weather patterns such as duststorms.

As per Wikipedia, Taytay Crater is an impact crater in the Oxia Palus quadrangle of Mars, located at 0.37° N and 19.65° W. It is 18.4 km in diameter and was named after Taytay Philippines.

Mars Orbiter Mission, also called Mangalyaan, is India's first interplanetary mission to planet Mars with an orbiter craft designed to orbit Mars in an elliptical orbit.

On 24 September 2014, Mangalyaan was successfully inserted into the Martian orbit after a 298-day transit to Mars.

With this, India became the first Asian nation to reach Mars orbit, and the first nation in the world to do so in its first attempt.

India's Mars Orbiter Mission was launched on 5 November 2013 by ISRO from the First Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket C-25.