Scientific explorer George Kourounis is very
to his job. He has devoted his life to documenting some of the most extreme places on the planet and this video is no excepion.George ventured over - and into - the Darvaza Crater in Northern Turkmenistan to investigate whether extreme life forms can exist on other planets.
The fiery crater is 225-feet wide and 99-feet and is filled with burning methane gas. It is though to be more than 40 years old but it is istill unclear how it was created. It is thought that Soviet scientists may have created it when they were looking for natural gas in the earth - they cracked through the crust and created a pit that burst into flames.
In this video for National Geographic TV, we get to accompany him on his terrifying visit to the crater cheerfully known as the
George travelled to the bottom of this fun place wearing a heat-reflective suit and breathing apparatus. On being lowered to the bottom of the pit by ropes, he collected soil samples with the hope of determining whether life can exist in such inhospitable conditions.
While being lowered dinto the pit, Mr Kourounis is heard to say:
When you’re dangling in the middle you just feel like a piece of laundry on the line, drying out."
"I was looking around and it looked like a doorway to hell – you realise that if something were to go wrong and fall that you’re dead from a fall," he said.