See first image of Earth taken by Mars probe

Zee Media Bureau\Philaso G Kaping

New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organisation has uploaded a photo of the Earth taken by the Mars Orbiter on its Facebook page. The picture was taken on Tuesday while the payload of the Mars probe was being tested and includes most of the Indian subcontinent, Tibet, the Middle East, parts of north-eastern Africa, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean. It also shows the cyclonic storm Helen over the Bay of Bengal as it hurtles towards Andhra Pradesh coast. “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,’” said the post on ISRO`s Mars Orbiter Mission page. “This image was taken yesterday at around 13:50 hrs 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,” added ISRO. Launched on November 5, the probe will monitor the Martian crust and atmosphere for signs of methane and explore the morphology, mineralogy of the Red Planet. ISRO will move the probe from the earth`s orbit towards Mars on December 1.