Mt Taranaki in epic shot from International Space Station

  • 15/02/2017
Mt Taranaki from space
The stunning image of Mt Taranaki taken by Thomas Pesquet on the International Space Station (NASA/Flickr)

Mt Taranaki - the magnificent geological pustule on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island - has been caught on camera from an unusual perspective.

The mountain is known for its defined conical appearance when viewed from the ground - but French astronaut Thomas Pesquet took his photo from the International Space Station, revealing what he called "a perfect circle emerging from the green forest".

Taranaki
(NASA/Flickr)

The haunting image captures the hard lines of Taranaki's ridges, stretching out from its snow-covered summit and into tendrils of valleys in the deep green of the surrounding bush, bordered by farmland.

Another stunning detail of the image is the wisp of cloud caught moving across the 2518-metre mountaintop.

Taranaki summit
(NASA/Flickr)

"Taranaki volcano reminded me of this," Mr Pesquet said, linking to the song Imagine by rock band A Perfect Circle.

In Māori mythology Taranaki once lived in the middle of the North Island with the other big volcanoes, until Tongariro cut big wounds into the side of Taranaki, forcing him to flee and leaving the Whanganui river in his path.

The International Space Station has also been in the news when it was caught on video last week almost perfectly bisecting the moon. 

Newshub.