Nik Halik, a civilian astronaut from Los Angeles has created a huge buzz on social media. His claim to fame—a selfie  in front of the live Benbow volcano on Ambrym Island in Vanuatu. Halik and Bradley Ambrose were testing a new heat suit.

Ambrose who was accompanying Halik told IANS that despite the heat suit, the stunt was quite dangerous as the heat was unbearable and the volcano was emitting poisonous gases.

Express reported that the pair had to wait two weeks to wait for the right time to access the volcano’s caldera and close to the lava bed.

It seems the world's Press is ablaze with the #SELFIE photo I took inside of a live exploding Volcano this past week pic.twitter.com/nMSbqHHGpS

— Nik Halik (@nikhalik) December 16, 2015