If you had a massive new year and can't believe we're in 2012 already, it's time to take stock of just how insignificant the arbitrary date change actually is.
This striking photo of earth was taken through the cupola on the International Space Station just before new year's eve, on December 29 2011.
Through the small windows you can see the lake Egirdir Golu in Turkey, located at 38.05 degrees north latitude and 30.89 degrees east longitude.
The shot also shows the Russian Soyuz spaceship docked at lower right. The Permanent Multipurpose Module (PMM) can be seen just above it.
the most recent Soyuz spacecraft to take off for the ISS took off on December 21.
Astronauts Oleg Kononenko, American Don Pettit and Andre Kuipers will work on the ISS with NASA's Dan Burbank and Russians Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin until March.
For more photos of space, check out our space page.
