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Astronauts capture incredible images of Super Typhoon Maysak

'Commands respect even from space,' Samantha Cristoforetti says

Super Typhoon Maysak as seen from space, March 31, 2015. (NASA/Samantha Cristoforetti)

Super Typhoon Maysak — which left at least five people dead after slamming into the Micronesian island of Chuuk — is expected to weaken as it approaches the Philippines, forecasters say. But it looked plenty powerful Tuesday, when astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured some incredible images of the enormous storm.

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti took several photos of the typhoon Tuesday, when Maysak's maximum sustained winds were 160 mph.


"Commands respect even from space," Cristoforetti wrote on Twitter.


Terry Virts, an American astronaut aboard the International Space Station, took several other shots of the typhoon's enormous eye.


"It seemed like a black hole from a Sci-Fi movie," Virts tweeted.

The typhoon, the third to impact the western Pacific this year, lashed the tiny island of Yap on Wednesday before weakening, Philippine weather officials said. Maysak, now carrying maximum winds of 118 mph, is expected to make landfall in the Philippines on Saturday.

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