Shot by astronaut Alexander Gerst and published by the European Space Agency, this remarkable series of shots (captured during a sleep cycle) makes the International Space Station look dark and deserted.

Various static night lights cast the scenes in haunting blues and greens, making the entire place feel as much like a low-illuminated movie set or post-collision space ship filled with faux clutter as an actual living quarters for half a dozen space-faring humans.

One could imagine that in the cramped quarters of this station, skulking about at night might provide some much-needed privacy for residents – aside, that is, from the creepy empty suits tethered to the walls float like eerie alien corpses.

Astronauts aboard the ISS follow GMT, syncing their sleeping patterns to a single time zone. Geoff Manaugh paints the scene with words: “The dimly lit corridors of this house of sleeping astronauts take on the atmosphere of film noir, as if this is secretly a crime scene, still flickering with the last lights of its drained batteries, and these are the first photos to be taken upon arrival.”

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Using sections of the International Space Station as stationary points, this incredible photo shoot turns both outer space and our own planet into a series of surreal and otherworldly landscapes.

Expedition 31 Flight Engineer Don Pettit relayed some information about photographic techniques used to achieve the images: “My star trail images are made by taking a time exposure of about 10 to 15 minutes. However, with modern digital cameras, 30 seconds is about the longest exposure possible, due to electronic detector noise effectively snowing out the image. To achieve the longer exposures I do what many amateur astronomers do. I take multiple 30-second exposures, then ‘stack’ them using imaging software, thus producing the longer exposure.”

The results are nothing short of stunning – the Earth’s surface becomes streaked with color and light, punctuated by what appear to be blotches of lightning or blurred cityscapes, but overall looking more linear like (Jupiter or) some other celestial body.

Naturally, only pieces of the ISS itself look static in each shot, creating a stark contrast between a fixed foreground and spiraling set of backgrounds (though, in reality, the station itself is also rotating – it is all relative). Armatures of the station end up open to interpretation, in some cases looking like the needle on a record player hovering above a spinning disk.

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Earth is an incredibly beautiful place, which can sometimes be hard to remember when you live here. But European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst is reminded of Terra’s breathtaking sights every day from his incredible vantage point aboard the ISS.

Gerst snaps pictures of the world from 205 miles up. He documents everything from choppy waters to serene land masses to hurricanes and other storms.

One of his favorite sights to shoot is cloud shadows. Seen from space, dense clouds can cast shadows on the planet’s surface or on other layers of clouds that can reach thousands of miles long.

The astronaut also uses his unique vantage point incredible images like these of the Northern Lights. His entire Flickr photostream is full of beautiful Earth photos taken from the serenity of space.

It’s sometimes difficult to realize that these stunning images are from right here on our own planet, not from a far-flung destination in space. If you ever forget just how magical and breathtaking Earth can be, Gerst’s photos from space can quickly help you remember.

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In movies, we see astronauts in space consuming pills rather than eating meals. In reality, they currently eat freeze-dried rations that, according to most astronauts, aren’t the tastiest meals. In the future, they may be able to pick their own fresh vegetables right from a garden aboard the International Space Station. When a SpaceX resupply rocket launched to the ISS in April 2014, it took with it a vegetable growth chamber that would allow fresh vegetables to be grown and observed in orbit.

The expandable chamber, dubbed Veggie, will use “root pillows” to grow “Outredgeous” lettuce seedlings. The chamber is low-cost and collapsible, able to travel almost flat and then expand upward up to 18 inches as the plants within it grow. The Veggie is the largest space growth chamber to date with a growing area that is 11.5 inches wide and 14.5 inches deep. A bank of red, blue and green LEDs encourage plant growth and let crew members observe the plants.

Studies on plant and animal growth in space have been conducted in the past, with some finding that insects born in space have a hard time adjusting upon their arrival on Earth. The goal of the Veggie project is to determine whether it will be possible to grow fresh food for sustenance and for recreation during the long-duration space missions NASA hopes to launch in the future. What’s the worst that could happen? We’re imagining huge, sentient heads of cabbage taking over the ISS and conquering Earth…but we’ll have to wait and see.

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