Astronaut captures image of a glowering 'skull' lurking in a giant volcanic pit in the Sahara

NASA has shared an astronaut photo of a skull-shaped feature, made up of natron, cinder cones and shadows, lurking in a giant caldera in the Sahara Desert. (Image credit: NASA Earth Observatory)

To celebrate the spooky season, NASA has released a bone-chilling photo of a creepy "skull" that appears to glower up toward space from the heart of an enormous volcanic pit in Chad. 

The uncanny image was captured Feb. 12 by an unnamed astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS), as the spacecraft passed above the Tibesti Massif — a mountain range that stretches across the center of the Sahara Desert through Chad and Libya. The image was released on Oct. 31 by NASA's Earth Observatory.