Europe and middle east at night photographed by astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) on 21st October 2011. This image is one frame from a time-lapse series of stills taken as the ISS passed from the UK over Europe and over the middle east. This frame shows Turkey in the foreground, Cyprus as the tear-shaped island on the right, at far left, the dark region is the Black Sea, while at middle right, cities along the coast line of Syria light up before the unlit region of the Syrian Desert (upper right corner). The ISS orbits the Earth at an altitude of some 360 kilometres. It travels at a ground speed of 27,724 km (17,227 mi) per hour and orbits the Earth every 90 minutes.