12 gorgeous, terrifying photos of volcanoes erupting — as seen from space

You can't exactly visit a volcano when it's erupting, or even threatening to. That's why satellites are a great way for scientists to monitor volcanic activity at a safe distance — all the way from space.

Using thermal and infrared imaging, they can create false-color photos of volcanoes to see where the hot spots are. This can help scientists predict when they might erupt.

Once a volcano does explode, satellites can also help track where the lava and smoke plumes are heading.

Japan's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer instrument aboard NASA's Terra spacecraft has imaged about 99% of the Earth's surface. The ASTER has caught many a photo of volcanoes erupting among the 2.95 million images it has captured since it launched in 1999.

Satellite images of volcanoes are extremely helpful and even beautiful, but they also remind us of nature's sometimes destructive power. Here are 12 of the most amazing photos of erupting volcanoes ASTER has taken from space:

Red-hot lava flows out of Mount Etna — Europe's most active volcano — in Italy in 2001.

This infrared image of the 2001 Etna eruption shows sulfur dioxide, seen in magenta, cascading out of the volcano in a plume over the city of Catania.

In November 2002, Etna was erupting again. The volcano's ash cloud blew over the Catania airport in Sicily.