Dhofar Region, Oman. Much of Oman is desert, but the Arabian Sea coast in the Dhofar region represents a startling difference in climate. This coastal region catches the monsoon rains, or khareef, during the summer months. Drenching rains fall primarily on the mountainous ridge that separates the lush, fertile areas along the coast from the arid interior, recharging streams, waterfalls and springs that provide plentiful water supplies in the fertile lowlands for the remainder of the year. Image taken by Landsat 5 on April 2, 2005. (Photo by USGS/NASA)

European Space Agency astronaut Tim Peake will return home after a six-month long mission on the International Space Station,on June 18, 2016. Peake was the first British ESA astronaut to visit the ISS and captured hundreds of photographs of the Earth during his mission. Here: “Lots of sun-glint right now during our whole orbit – we haven't seen a sunset for over 3 days”, he wrote. (Photo by Tim Peake/ESA/NASA)

Space Shuttle Discovery leaves the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) on its way to the Orbiter Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center August 11, 2011 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Space Shuttles Endeavour and Discovery switched buildings as they are being decommissioned with the end of the Shuttle program. (Photo by Roberto Gonzalez/Getty Images)

A British space-exploration company has revealed its aim to fly the public to the moon from 2015 – providing they have £100m for a ticket.

Photo: Jenn Sander from Red Robin PR, wearing a spacesuit once worn by US Astronaut Peggy Whitson, sits inside a re-entry capsule owned by Excalibur Almaz outside the Queen Elizabeth II Centre on June 19, 2012 in London, England. The company today announced their plan to fly people to the moon on what is the 40th anniversary year of the Apollo 17 moon landing. (Photo by Rosie Hallam)

These rare photos capture the Flight Deck (cockpit) of the Space Shuttle Endeavour, fully powered for one of the final times. Just a few weeks later, at 9:58am EDT on May 11, Endeavour was powered down for the final time in history. It was the last of the three space shuttles to have power. Below, other views show the mid-deck, gutted of its lockers and storage areas, and three final photos show the white room entrance in the Orbiter Processing Facility, signed by thousands over the years.

Dead sperm whales are seen washed up on a beach on Texel Island, The Netherlands, January 13, 2016. The five sperm whales that beached on the Dutch lsland of Texel on Tuesday have died overnight, Dutch media reported. It is extremely unusual for so many whales to be in Dutch waters, a spokesman for the Ecomare marine centre told local paper Noordhollands Dagblad. Efforts to get the whales back into open water on Tuesday evening failed and rescuers finally withdrew from the beach at around midnight. The area of beach where the whales are has been closed to the public, to minimise the distress to the animals. (Photo by Cris Toala Olivares/Reuters)

Hundreds of onlookers descended upon White Rock beach, just south of Vancouver, Canada, on June 12, 2012 to mourn a beached whale that died on the sandy tidal flats. (Photo by Nick Procaylo/PNG/PNG Merlin Archive)

Four-year-old Chinese boy Huang Yang plays with five-year-old beluga whale Xiao Xin at the Qingdao Ocean World on November 3, 2007 in Qingdao of Shandong Province, China. Huang Yang began swimming as a baby and fell in love with the whale after watching its performance. On the International Children's Day, June 1 this year, the Qingdao Ocean World has made the boy's dream come true when they allowed Huang Yang to swim with the beluga whale. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)