India's Mars mission: Picture that spoke 1,000 words (BBC) [View all]
Soutik Biswas
Delhi correspondent
When the crowded command control room of India's Mars mission exploded into applause after it successfully put a satellite into orbit around the Red Planet, photographer Manjunath Kiran of the AFP news agency clicked this remarkable image of scientists congratulating each other.
Wednesday's picture arrived with a rather anodyne caption saying "staff from the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) celebrate after the Mars Orbiter Spacecraft (Mom) successfully entered the Mars orbit".
But in reality, the picture was about much more than that - a bunch of smiling Indian women resplendent in gorgeous saris greeting each other as their male colleagues look on admiringly at mission control in Bangalore.
"The women were leading the applause when the good news arrived. They were celebrating more than men. Who said men are from Mars and women are from Venus?" says senior science journalist Pallava Bagla, who was present in the control room.
The picture - which brightened up my manic morning writing up the Mars mission story - went viral and became the event's image of the day.
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more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-29357472
The mars orbiter spacecraft is known as "Mom" ?
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