The picture shows the north-western region island of Crete , the largest and most densely populated of the islands of Greece , that extends for about 250 km in length and 40 km in larghezza .

Crete is located in the Mediterranean Sea on the boundary of separation between the Aegean Sea and Sea of ​​Libya : the island has many beaches , fertile highlands , grotte ed gasp Montagne . The region's economy is mainly based on agriculture , with significant presence of vineyards , olive groves and citrus crops . They play too much importance dairies , with a variety of cheeses from goat and sheep on the market .

the bottom right in the image you can identify a cluster of bright radar reflections along the northern coast : it is the city of Chania , the second largest urban agglomeration in the island , dopo's capital Heraklion ( not visible in this acquisition ), once known as the Venetian Candia .

The spacecraft Soyuz partita's scorsa notte slabs Kazakistan , engaged safely this morning at the Space Station , bringing ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and his traveling companions orbiting sull'avamposto where they will live and work for the next five months .

Luca Parmitano is ESA astronaut who has been able to fly aboard the Space Station on behalf of the Italian Space (ASI) based ad in a bilateral accord tra ASI and NASA . Along with Luke there are the Russian commander of the Soyuz Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg . All three will be , as members of the Expedition 36/37, flight engineers on the Station . La missione di Luca, called “Fly”, symbolizing the search for new frontiers and opportunities for discovery, and of course the mission also binds to one of the symbols of Italian pop music .

Luke is the first European flight engineer to co-pilot the Soyuz in this mode for quick approach .

While no one has yet figured out how to take flight a shooting star , the NASA has his eye on an asteroid to save the Earth from destruction .

Charles Bolden, director of the U.S. space , visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena , in California and said the ambitious project of NASA to intercept , redirect and explore an asteroid .

“ This is the first opportunity to demonstrate how to move the orbit of an asteroid of this size ”. While saving the world from a potential collision is , per say is , a worthy goal , Bolden said another motivation behind the mission will be to further develop the technology to put a man on Mars in the near future .

“ My ultimate goal , as a human being is to arrive on Mars ”, said to the manager at the Times . I the President Obama has included a mission to capture the asteroid as part of the budget 2014, and has allocated 100 millions of dollars to carry out the mission by 2025. To do this, NASA will need a space rock between the 20 and 30 feet, not faster than 1,5 kilometers per second.

The 31 May 2013, l'asteroid 1998 QE2 will approach the Earth closer to about 5,8 milioni km , or about 15 times the distance between Earth and the Moon .

And while the QE2 is not of great interest to astronomers and scientists in search of dangerous asteroids , is of interest to those who dabble in astronomy and radar telescope or larger have at their disposal . Every time an asteroid approaches the Earth , provides an important scientific opportunity to study in detail to understand size , forma , rotation, surface characteristics , and what you can know about its origin .

Keplero , the eye from 600 million dollars has a damaged wheel , necessary for the positioning of the four solar panels . Each 3 months, the probe must rotate 90 degrees so that the solar panels rotate toward the sun , while maintaining its precise vision on distant planets .

There will be a dramatic global decline in the number of animal and plant species in this century , if the world continues to increase beyond the measures emissions of carbon dioxide !