French astronaut Thomas Pesquet captures incredible image of New Zealand's Taranaki Volcano from space

When orbiting hundreds of kilometres above the earth, familiar landscapes take on a haunting appearance.

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet has described the moment he captured New Zealand's Taranaki volcano from aboard the International Space Station, according to the Daily Mail.

Mt Taranaki, which is well overdue to blow its top, looms large over New Zealand's Egmont National Park. Photo / ESA/NASA

The 2500-metre-high volcano, which looms large over Egmont National Park, appears small and otherworldly from the lofty heights.

"The Taranaki volcano in New Zealand is a perfect circle emerging from the green forest," the 38-year-old wrote to his 1.2 million Facebook followers.

"They say it looks like Mount Fuji in Japan, I hope to capture Mount Fuji, too, one day."

The image has made a splash on social media, with 42,000 likes and thousands of comments.

A few hours after sharing the photo, Pesquet posted on Twitter that Mt Taranaki reminded him of the song Imagine by the American rock band A Perfect Circle.

Taranaki volcano reminded me of this #songs4space: @aperfectcircle – Imagine https://t.co/CyXMnHVd3H

— Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) February 14, 2017

Mt Taranaki, which is well overdue to blow its top, was one of the first landmarks to be tweeted from space after it was shared by Nasa astronaut Thomas Marshburn in 2013.

More volcano-spotting! Mt. Taranaki on New Zealand's North Island served as the backdrop in the movie The Last Samurai pic.twitter.com/cs56558j

— Thomas H. Marshburn (@AstroMarshburn) January 11, 2013

Pesquet will be on the station for six months pioneering earth science and experiments in biotechnology.

This week the aerospace engineer also shared an image of Australian landmark Uluru, which also looked a far cry from how we know it.

View this post on Instagram

Here is a picture I’ve wanted to take for a long time: Ayer’s rock in Australia (also named Uluru in aboriginal) / Le site sacré Uluru, en plein cœur de l’outback australien, se détache nettement de son environnement dans le soleil couchant… 🇦🇺 #ESA #astronaut #view #australia #earth #earthpics #earthphotography #earthfromabove #earthfromspace #space #instaspace #ISS #expedition50 #mission #proxima

A post shared by Thomas Pesquet (@thom_astro) on Feb 5, 2017 at 4:56am PST