The Philippines put troops on alert on Wednesday and prepared food and medical supplies as it warned residents and tourists along its eastern coasts to be ready for a super typhoon expected to land some time in the next 72 hours.

Typhoon Maysak is currently a category five storm - the highest rating - hovering over the Pacific Ocean with winds gusting as high as 250 km per hour (155 mph).

But for Samantha Cristoforetti, an astronaut currently on board the International Space Station, it was more than worth photographing. She flew over the super-typhoon and got some astonishing photos of the eye of the storm.

(With inputs from Reuters.)