The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has released images of Comet Siding Spring taken by its Mars Orbiter in October.

The new photo surfaces during a time when comets are the main subject of interest to a lot of organizations like the European Space Agency (ESA), which developed the Philae lander that successfully touched down on Comet 67P Gerasimeko-Churyumov.

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Comet Siding Spring passed Mars on October 19 and was successfully photographed by the spacecraft's cameras. Mars Orbiter also captured important data about the comet's composition, size, and trajectory.

The camera captured the top bright portion of the comet, or coma, during the 40 minutes before the comet had its close encounter with the Red Planet.

The orbiter had to reposition itself in orbit so as not to be harmed by debris from the comet, which it managed to do successfully.

Nick Schneider, a scientist at the University of Colorado, said the best view of the meteor shower would have been from the Red Planet and it would have been truly stunning to the human eye.

The researcher discovered that Comet Siding Spring left traces of iron, sodium, and magnesium in the planet's atmosphere.

Analysis of the minerals shows that what happened wasn't a meteor shower but a meteor storm. They added that sodium would have left the planet with a faint yellow glow following the storm.

"This historic event allowed us to observe the details of this fast moving Oort Cloud comet in a way never before possible, using our existing Mars missions. Instead of going to the comet, it came to us," said Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division.

NASA and ESA also have orbiters circling Mars.

TagsISRO, Mars Orbiter, Mars Comet, Sliding Spring, philae, rosetta, comet, Space