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.
Blue Stars and Red Pillars
Bright blue stars are still forming in the red pillars of the Eagle Nebula. Made famous by a picture from the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, the Eagle Nebula shows the dramatic…
Message from Earth
What are these Earthlings trying to tell us? The above message was broadcast from Earth towards the globular star cluster M13 in 1974. During the dedication of the Arecibo…
Mars: Yogi And Friends In 3D
A ramp from the Pathfinder lander , the Sojourner robot rover , airbags, a couch, Barnacle Bill , and Yogi Rock appear together in this 3D stereo view of the surface of Mars .…
Vega
Vega is a bright blue star 25 light years away. Vega is the brightest star in the Summer Triangle , a group of stars easily visible summer evenings in the northern hemisphere. The…
Mars: Twin Peaks In Stereo
Get out your red/blue glasses and gaze across the surface of Mars in stereo. You are looking south of west across an ancient flood channel , Ares Vallis, landing site of the Mars…
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 marks…
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…
Yogi Rock
This portrait of Yogi Rock, a now famous boulder on Mars , was recorded on Sol 3 by the Imager for Mars Pathfinder ( IMP ). Big and friendly looking like its Earth cartoon…
Sojourner's View: The Sagan Memorial Station
The robot rover Sojourner sees Mars from the perspective of a house cat . During the 7 month cruise to Mars aboard the Pathfinder spacecraft, Sojourner measured only seven inches…
Sol 4: Mars Color Panorama
These mosaicked images form a color panorama of the region immediately surrounding the Sagan Memorial Station on Mars . The most recent images were recorded on Sol 4 - the 4th day…
Barnacle Bill And Sojourner
Deployed on a pop-up mast to its full height, the Sagan Memorial Station 's IMP camera now stands about 5 feet above the surface of Ares Vallis - on Mars . This is one of the…
Sojourner On Mars
The six wheeled robot rover Mars Sojourner rolled onto the martian surface on July 5th (Sol 2) at about 10:40 PM Pacific Daylight Time. This image confirms that its descent down…
A Martian Day's End
A Day or “Sol” on Mars is only 40 minutes longer than an Earth day - and Pathfinder's first day on Mars, Sol 1 according to its local calendar, was an eventful one . Still, late…
Pathfinder on Mars
Yesterday, July 4th, using its own array of fireworks, a parachute, and a cocoon of airbags, the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft successfully bounced and came to rest on the surface of…
A Landing On Mars
Today, July 4th , at about 10:00 AM Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft will land on Mars . Ninety minutes before reaching the surface Pathfinder will…
Mars: A Journey's End
Mars Pathfinder is nearing the end of its 7 month journey. The robot spacecraft is scheduled to use parachutes, rockets, and airbags to “bouncedown” on the red planet tomorrow -…
Gamma-Ray Burst: A Milestone Explosion
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) were discovered by accident. In fact, GRBs always seem to be where scientists least expect them. Thirty years ago today, satellites first recorded a GRB .…
Asteroid 253 Mathilde:'s Large Craters
You're zipping through the Solar System when you pass ... asteroid 253 Mathilde. This actually happened to NASA's NEAR spacecraft just last Friday. The above picture of the…
NEAR Mathilde
Hey Earth, look what I found! On the way to visiting the asteroid 433 Eros in February 1999, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft flew right by another asteroid:…
Ida and Dactyl: Asteroid and Moon
This asteroid has a moon ! The robot spacecraft Galileo currently exploring the Jovian system , encountered and photographed two asteroids during its long journey to Jupiter. The…
Barsoom
“Yes, I have been to Barsoom again ...” begins John Carter in Edgar Rice Burroughs' 1913 science fiction classic “The Gods of Mars” . In Burroughs' novels describing Carter's…
Mars: Just The Facts
Mars , the freeze-dried planet , orbits 137 million miles from the Sun or at about 1.5 times the Earth-Sun distance . It has two diminutive moons , towering extinct volcanos , an…
A Close Encounter of the Stellar Kind
The unassuming star centered in this sky view will one day be our next door stellar neighbor . The faint 9th magnitude red dwarf currently 63 light-years away in the constellation…
A GRB Host?
Where do gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) originate? The most powerful explosions in the universe have recently been located with record accuracy. But do GRBs occur in galaxies or out…
Viewing discoveries from 18 July 1997 through 25 June 1997.