China has sent its first woman into space on a mission to dock with an orbiting station, the latest step in an ambitious programme to go to the moon and on to Mars.

Photo: China's first female astronaut Liu Yang, waves during a sending off ceremony before she departs for the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft rocket launch pad at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan, China, Saturday, June 16, 2012. China will send its first woman and two other astronauts into space Saturday to work on a temporary space station for about a week, in a key step toward becoming only the third nation to set up a permanent base in orbit. (Photo by Ng Han Guan/AP Photo)

Runners hoist another runner into the air after completing The Color Run All-Star 5K as part of the All-Star Baseball game festivities, Saturday, July 11, 2015, at Sawyer Point Park, in Cincinnati. After more than two years of planning and sprucing up, city organizers say everything's in place for a smooth, safe and fun five days of events that began Friday morning with the opening of Major League Baseball's fan festival. There will be concerts, exhibits, celebrity softball, the Home Run Derby and other activities capped by Tuesday night's game. (Photo by John Minchillo/AP Photo)

Irina, worker of a petrol station, now member of reconnaissance team of pro-Russian rebels' in the town of Makievka, eastern Ukraine, October 6, 2014. Like the men in the conflict, the women come from all walks of life. Some women come to serve with their husbands and boyfriends, others are single. Female fighters on both sides said the men in their units treat them as equals, though sometimes showing more leniency. They have little respect for men who have not taken up arms. On both sides the fighters expect a long conflict, despite the fragile ceasefire now in place. (Photo by Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)

Now celebrating its 40th year, Nikon Small World is widely regarded as the leading forum to recognize proficiency and photographic excellence of photography taken under the microscope. To select the winners, competition judges analyzed entries from all over the world covering subjects ranging from chemical compounds to up-close-and-personal looks at biological specimens. The 2014 winners will be revealed on October 30th. In 2014, the competition received over 1,200 entries from more than 79 countries around the world. (Photo by Dr. Igor Robert Siwanowicz/Nikon Small World 2014)

All the people we meet, all the things we know, and all of our experiences shape our souls, forever marking our faces. This was probably the main idea of the performance piece created by Chinese artist Zhang Huan, in which his face was painted over by three calligraphers with the names of people he knew, personal stories, and random thoughts. Truly, it amazing just how much we can find out about a person just by looking at their face. Surely, not everyone has the ability to see into the soul of the person just by looking at their face, but those that do can easily see the person’s personality, their intelligence, and sometimes even get glimpse into their past. Though it sounds like magic to people who don’t have this ability, it is completely true. Somehow, our mind can pick up on the miniscule changes of the facial structure and figure out the dominant facial expressions of that person. (Photo by Zhang Huan)

When you gaze into the eyes of this beautiful creature, you can almost make out constellations forming deep within. The name of this magnificent bird is Zeus, named after the Greek god of the sky for her one-of-a-kind eyes. The reason why she has such eyes is because she is blind. She was saved by a family in Southern California, when they found her injured on their front porch. After realizing that this poor creature is blind and unable to take care of itself, they took her to an animal hospital. After she healed up, everyone agreed that she should be sent to the Wildlife Learning Center. From that point on, Zeus has been happily living in the center. And though she cannot see, you can bet that her other senses are ten times as sharp. (Photo by Wildlife Learning Center)

Have you ever heard of a psychological phenomenon which lets us easily understand words, even if the order of letters is mixed up, as long as the first and last letters remain in their rightful place? Similarly, the art works of Michael Turner use only two colors to highlight the main futures of well-recognized superheroes, allowing our imagination to create the rest of the picture. The colors used in the pictures weren’t chosen at random. They perfectly reflect the key characteristics of the superheroes that they depict. For example, the picture of Flash uses red and yellow colors, which are exactly the colors of his costume. While the picture of Green Lantern is, you’ve guessed it, green and black. (Photo by Michael Turner)