Check Out This Stunning Picture Of The Moon From Space

We've been regularly bombarded with images of the Earth from above, thanks to Commander Chris Hadfield on the International Space Station, and the dozens of Earth-observing satellites circling our planet, but it's not too often we see an image of the moon from space.

The ISS hovers 250 miles above Earth, so it also has a spectacular view of our closest celestial neighbor.

Luckily ISS commander Maxim Suraev just published this fabulous shot to the Roscosmos Instagram feed. He caught the moon on a cloudy day, so you can see the peaks from the fluffy clouds below. You can see the out-stretched shadows cast by, what appears to be, a couple of cumulonimbus clouds, with the lonely moon floating in the background.

Suraev isn't the first person to take an image of the moon from the ISS: Here's another stunning one taken by astronaut Ron Garan aboard the space station in 2011. A sunset lines Earth's edge as a thin crescent of the moon appears in the night sky. Because they orbit the Earth every 90 minutes, the crew aboard the ISS experience this dual sunset/moonrise view 16 times a day.

This last image depicts a distant Moon, with just a small portion reflecting the sunlight. To observers on Earth, this would appear to be a crescent Moon. The ominous bright-blue band closing in on the Moon is Earth's atmosphere. This image was also taken aboard the ISS by an astronaut from Expedition 26.