Browse NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day archive by date and media: Archive Discoveries
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NGC 5189: A Strange Planetary Nebula
After a Sun -like star can no longer support fusion in its core, the center condenses into a white dwarf while the outer atmospheric layers are expelled into space and appear as a…
Apollo 14 Deploys ALSEP
After the lunar module of Apollo 14 set down on the Moon , Astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell deployed the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) and collected…
Apollo 14 on the Moon
The jewel-like glare from a brilliant sun reflects off the lunar module of the Apollo 14 mission to the Moon as it rests on the lunar surface in February 1971. Astronauts Alan…
Descent To Jupiter
Hours ago , at about 5:00 pm EST (2200 GMT) December 7, Galileo's descent probe slammed into Jupiter's atmosphere . Above is an artist's vision of the probe's planned descent from…
Galileo's Jupiter Probe
Today, at about 5:00 pm EST, this 750 pound probe from NASA's robot spacecraft Galileo will plummet into Jupiter becoming the first probe to fly through the atmosphere of a gas…
24 Hours from Jupiter
NASA's robot spacecraft Galileo began its long voyage to Jupiter more than six years and 2.3 billion miles ago. About 24 hours from now it will reach its destination. On arrival…
The Swirling Center of NGC 4261
What evil lurks in the hearts of galaxies? The above picture by the Hubble Space Telescope of the center of the nearby galaxy NGC 4261 tells us one dramatic tale . Here gas and…
GL 229B: An Elusive Brown Dwarf?
What type of matter makes up most of the universe? This question is arguably the most perplexing astronomical mystery of our time. A leading candidate is a type of dim, low mass…
An X-ray Hot Supernova in M81
In 1993, a star in the galaxy M 81 exploded. Above is a picture of the hot material ejected by this supernova explosion. The picture was taken in X-rays with the Advanced…
Lightning Below
In May of 1993, the Space Shuttle Columbia orbited the Earth carrying the Spacelab Deutsche 2 (SL-D2) science module and spacelab tunnel seen here riding in the shuttle's payload…
51 Pegasi: A New Planet Discovered
Are we alone in the universe? Do other stars have planets too? Humanity took one step closer to answering these questions in October 1995 when it was announced that the star 51…
NGC 2440 Nucleus: The Hottest Star?
In the center of the above photograph lies a star with one of the hottest surface temperatures yet confirmed. This bright white dwarf star's surface has been measured at greater…
Releasing Compton
Named for Nobel laureate physicist Arthur Holly Compton , the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) Satellite was launched in April of 1991 aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis .…
Shadow at the Lunar South Pole
In 1994, the space probe Clementine spent 70 days in lunar orbit mapping the Moon's surface . Shown above is a dramatically detailed composite view centered on the Moon's South…
Too Close to a Black Hole
What would you see if you went right up to a black hole ? Above are two computer generated pictures highlighting how strange things would look. On the left is a normal star field…
A Star Where Photons Orbit
The above computer animated picture depicts how a very compact star would look to a nearby observer. The star pictured is actually more compact that any known except a black hole…
Saturn's Cleanest Moon: Enceladus
Enceladus orbits Saturn between the smaller Mimas and the larger Tethys . Enceladus is composed mostly of water ice and has the cleanest and purest ice surface in the Solar System…
Saturn's Moon Tethys
Tethys is one of the larger and closer moons of Saturn . It was visited by both Voyager spacecraft - Voyager 1 in November 1980 and by Voyager 2 in August 1981. Tethys is now…
M1: Polarization of the Crab
The Crab Nebula resulted from a star that exploded - a supernova . Although the stellar explosion that caused the Crab Nebula was seen over 900 years ago, the nebula itself still…
M1: The Exploding Crab Nebula
The Crab Nebula resulted from a star that exploded - a supernova . The outer layers of the star were thrown violently into space, while the inner core collapsed to form a neutron…
M42: Orion Nebula Mosaic
The Great Nebula in Orion is one of the most interesting of all astronomical nebulae known. Here fifteen pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope have been merged to show the…
At the Core of M15
Densely packed stars in the core of the globular cluster M15 are shown in this Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image taken in April of 1994. The stars revealed are contained in an…
New York at Night
This tantalizingly clear photo of New York City at night was taken by the astronauts during the Space Radar Laboratory mission of the Space Shuttle Endeavor in March of 1990. In…
Water World
Water (Dihydrogen Oxide, H2O) is a truly remarkable chemical compound and is fundamental to life on Earth . Earth is the only planet in the Solar System where the surface…
Viewing discoveries from 11 December 1995 through 18 November 1995.