Browse NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day archive by date and media: Archive Discoveries
Browse the NASA APOD archive without needing the exact date first. Filter by media type and keep moving deeper into older images and videos.
The Voyagers' Message in a Bottle
Launched in the summer of 1977 , NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft are now over 4.5 billion miles from the Sun. Still operational , the Voyagers are being tracked and commanded…
A Distant Galaxy in the Deep Field
Researchers believe that the faint reddish smudge indicated by the arrow in the image above is a candidate for the most distant known galaxy which may have existed only a few…
Voyager's Preview of Galileo at Ganymede
NASA's robot spacecraft Galileo began its long voyage to Jupiter in October of 1989. In December of last year it arrived in the Jovian system, beginning its unprecedented,…
Happy Birthday Charles Messier: M1
French astronomer Charles Messier was born on June 26, 1730 . Inspired by childhood sightings of comets and a solar eclipse visible from his home town of Badonvillier, he became…
A Star Forming Region in the LMC
Stars sometimes form in colorful ways. Pictured above is a small region in the nearby LMC galaxy where stars are forming. After a star is born , it may do several things to…
A View from Venus: Rift Valley
Color information from the Soviet Venera landers and radar data from the Magellan spacecraft were used to construct this striking perspective view of the Venusian landscape . (In…
Tycho's Supernova Remnant in X-ray
How often do stars explode? By looking at external galaxies, astronomers can guess that these events, known as a supernovae , should occur about once every 30 years in a typical…
North to the Moon's Pole
This image is from the voyage of the intrepid Galileo spacecraft as it passed above the Moon's north pole on its long journey to Jupiter . It was made over 60 years after Admiral…
A Very Large Array of Radio Telescopes
Pictured above is one of the world's premiere radio astronomical observatories: The Very Large Array (VLA). Each antenna dish is as big as a house (25 meters across) and mounted…
Apollo Sunrise
In November of 1969, homeward bound aboard the “Yankee Clipper” command module, the Apollo 12 astronauts took this dramatic photograph of the Sun emerging from behind the Earth.…
Aurora: Curtains in the Sky
Looking out over Lake Superior at dusk you see Venus (lower left) and ... curtains? Like an ant looking up at window curtains , aurora frequently appear as huge flowing light…
Seven Sisters Versus California
In the lower left corner, dressed in blue, is the Pleiades . Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45 , the Pleiades is one of the brightest and most easily visible open clusters…
The United States at Night
This is what the United States of America looks like at night! Can you find your favorite US city on this image? Surprisingly, city lights make this task quite possible. The above…
APOD is One Year Old Today
The first Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) appeared one year ago today. Pictured above are Robert Nemiroff (left) and Jerry Bonnell (right), engaged in creating the APOD web…
Walking in Space
Pictured above is the first american astronaut to walk in space: Edward White . White is seen floating outside the Gemini 4 capsule in 1965. The term “spacewalk” is deceiving…
Floating Free in Space
NASA astronauts can float free in space without any connection to a spaceship. Here astronaut Bruce McCandless maneuvers outside the Space Shuttle Challenger by firing nitrogen…
Vela Supernova Remnant in Optical
About 11,000 years ago a star in the constellation of Vela exploded. This bright supernova may have been visible to the first human farmers . Today the Vela supernova remnant…
Vela Supernova Remnant in X-ray
What happens when a star explodes? A huge fireball of hot gas shoots out in all directions. When this gas slams into the existing interstellar medium , it heats up so much it…
Doomed Star Eta Carinae
Eta Carinae may be about to explode. But no one knows when - it may be next year, it may be one million years from now. Eta Carinae 's mass - about 100 times greater than our Sun…
Ultraviolet Earth
Here's a switch: the above picture is of the Earth taken from a lunar observatory! This false color picture shows how the Earth glows in ultraviolet (UV) light. UV light is so…
Blasting Off From the Moon
How did the astronauts get back from the Moon ? The Lunar Module that landed two astronauts on the Moon actually came apart. The top part containing the astronauts carried…
The First Lunar Observatory
The first and only lunar astronomical observatory was deployed by the Apollo 16 crew in 1972. The Far Ultraviolet Camera / Spectrograph used a 3-inch diameter telescope to…
Apollo 16: Exploring Plum Crater
Apollo 16 spent three days on Earth's Moon in April 1972. The fifth lunar landing mission out of six, Apollo 16 was famous for deploying and using an ultraviolet telescope as the…
The North America Nebula
Here's a familiar shape in an unfamiliar location! This emission nebula is famous partly because it resembles Earth 's North American Continent . To the right of the North America…
Viewing discoveries from 29 June 1996 through 6 June 1996.