A beautiful photograph of Malta at night has been captured by European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

In the photo, the bright lights of Malta are clearly visible, with the less-populated Gozo harder to see.

Pesquet, who does not say when the photo was taken, writes that the smaller Maltese islands cannot be seen because, since they are uninhabited, they are unlit and invisible in the dark.

They can only be seen in full moon when this reflects into the sea, he said.

He notes that in the south of Malta, the Freeport is seen shining brightly.

Pesquet is on the European Space Station’s Alpha mission, its second to the International Space Station.

He also shared a video showing a cube that contains Malta's first experiment in space that will examine how bacteria taken from the skin of diabetes patients grows. 

"Diabetes is a serious and common illness on Earth so this experiment makes a lot of sense to me," he said.

The project also contains artwork from thousands of children including students from San Andrea, who will have their music video transmitted from the International Space Station.

"Welcome to space Malta, it was a pleasure to set you up!" he said. 

Pesquet left earth on the SpaceX Crew Dragon in April and should be returning to earth in October.