Space photo shows giant Earth crater

PARIS, March 26 (UPI) -- A Dutch astronaut aboard the International Space Station has captured a dramatic image of a huge, reddish lava crater in the Sahara Desert.

Andre Kuipers snapped the photo of what was likely an old volcanic basin, from the orbiting laboratory 240 miles above Mauritania on the Atlantic coast of West Africa, officials at the European Space Agency said in a statement.

During their months-long turns aboard the ISS astronauts often perform Earth observations for science and public outreach, and space agencies use their photos to interest students in geography, planetary science and human spaceflight, SPACE.com said.

Kuipers is one of six people currently living and working on the space station with Americans Dan Burbank and Don Pettit and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov, Anatoly Ivanishin and Oleg Kononenko.

Burbank is commander of the station's Expedition 30 mission.

Kuipers arrived at the ISS in December 2011, and is scheduled to return to Earth July 1 along with Kononenko and Pettit.