33 Stunning Photos Of Our Amazing Planet Earth Taken By A Guy In Space

Whoa. These weren't taken by a billion dollar satellite, just a dude and his Nikon. Turns out Dutch astronaut and physician Andre Kuipers, currently doing research on the International Space Station, is quite the interstellar shutterbug. All of the captions and photos (save the last) are his. Some of these don't even look real.

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The Richat Structure in Mauritania.

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Paris at night.

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From space I wish you all a very exciting and colorful year!

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Veins' in the Somalian desert.

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Over the Tibetan plateau with the Himilayas, Butan and Napal in the background.

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Denmark with Copenhagen, Norway with Oslo, Sweden with Stockholm in the distance, northern Germany and beyond. And the Aurora Borealis of course.

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Beautiful reflection of the Sun in a Brazilian river.

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(Airplanes 242 miles below.) On their way to America.

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Over the Southern Lights between Antarctic and Australia.

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Sahara sand treks hundreds of kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean.

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Sea ice spirals near Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia.

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The different layers of the atmosphere can be seen during sunrise and sunset.

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Detail strong winds at White Sands.

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Sunlight reflects in the Mediterranean and Adriatic seas. Corsica, Sardinia and northern Italy.

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Sahara sand pattern.

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Snowy Canada. River or a millipede?

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Wave pattern in the Indian Ocean. I wonder if they are above or below the water surface and how tall they are.

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Lake Powell and Colorado River. Awesome place. Green warm water, white/red rocks, blue sky. And nobody around.

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Meteor crater in Canada.

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The Alps look very tempting, but I don't have my skis with me...

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The moon looks the same from the ISS as it does on Earth. Only we see it rise and set again and again.

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A year ago I saw it from a plane and tweeted that I wanted to see these colours from space. Here it is. Salt Lake City.

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Sahara sand pattern.

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The Earth by night.

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ISS Commander Dan Burbank @astrocoastie has an eye for beautiful cloud formations

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Aircraft make patterns in the sky.

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How we see the moon. Sharp and slowly moving towards or away from the horizon.

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The Pacific is a great source of colourful images. One of the Gilbert Islands.

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Africa meets Europe - Strait of Gibraltar.

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Foam clouds.

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For an experiment I had to be quiet for 10 min, so I looked out the window. And saw an active Etna!

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Australia is an extraordinary continent with beautiful structures.

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Comet Lovejoy by Cdr Dan Burbank @astrocoastie, on launch day. One of the first who spotted it.