On Its First Birthday, Mangalyaan Flaunts Stunning Images of Mars

NEW DELHI:  Mangalyaan, India's maiden mission to Mars, completed a year in space today and as part of the first anniversary celebrations, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has launched a 'Mars Atlas' in Bengaluru.

 The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) has sent back some stunning images of the Red Planet including the best collection of the full disc of Mars and charted the highest volcanoes and deepest valleys of the Solar System.

Over 100 images from a collection of 350 acquired by the Mars Colour Camera on the spacecraft have been compiled in a form of a scientific atlas.

These images and the data sent by the mission will help to unlock the mystery of the Red Planet.

According to the ISRO, "the knowledge acquired by the analysis of the data suggests enhanced possibility of the presence of life on this now dry and dusty planet."

This possibly refers to the Mangalyaan recording signals of the presence of methane gas in the Martian atmosphere.

The signals still need to be scientifically validated and hence we will have to wait for final confirmation if India's low cost mission will rewrite history of life as we know it in the universe.

According to ISRO Chairman AS Kiran Kumar, the space organization will also release a book 'Fishing hamlet to Mars' on November 5.

"Mars (mission) is expected to last for many years now, because it has gone through solar conjunction also; so we don't see much of a problem," Mr Kumar added.

Scripting space history, India on September 24, 2014, had successfully placed its low-cost Mars spacecraft in orbit around the Red Planet on its very first attempt, breaking into an elite club of three nations.