Browse NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day archive by date and media: Archive Discoveries
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NGC 3372: The Great Nebula in Carina
In one of the brightest parts of the Milky Way lies a nebula where some of the oddest things occur. NGC 3372, known as the Great Nebula in Carina , is home to massive stars and…
Jupiter from Voyager
This picture of the planet Jupiter was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft as it passed the planet in 1979. Jupiter , a gas giant planet with no solid surface, is the largest planet…
Rockets and Robert Goddard
Robert H. Goddard , one of the founding fathers of modern rocketry, was born in Worcester Massachusetts in 1882. As a 16 year old, Goddard read H.G. Wells' science fiction classic…
Solar Surfin'
The sun's corona is a tenuous outer atmosphere composed of streams of energetic charged particles, but it is only easily seen from Earth during a total solar eclipse . For…
Charles P. Conrad, Jr. 1930-1999
Known for his sense of humor and infectious grin, Charles P. “Pete” Conrad , as commander of the Apollo 12 mission, was the third person to walk on the moon. Not a tall man,…
Moon, Planets, and Rocket Trails
Are you an early riser ? Over the last month or so, the bright planets Jupiter and Saturn have come to adorn eastern skies before sunrise . In fact, astro photographer Joe Orman…
The Flame Nebula in Infrared
What lights up the Flame Nebula? Fifteen hundred light years away towards the constellation of Orion lies a nebula which, from its glow and dark dust lanes, appears like a…
A Delta Rocket Launches
A Delta rocket is pictured launching NASA's FUSE satellite earlier this month. In use since 1960, Delta rockets have been launched successfully over 250 times . Scientific…
Barringer Crater on Earth
What happens when a meteor hits the ground? Usually nothing much, as most meteors are small, and indentations they make are soon eroded away. 49,000 years ago, however, a large…
Southern Neptune
Neptune , the Solar System's outermost gas giant planet, is 30 times farther from the Sun than Earth. Twelve years after a 1977 launch , Voyager 2 flew by Neptune and found…
NGC 7789: Galactic Star Cluster
At 1.6 billion years old, this cluster of stars is beginning to show its age. NGC 7789 is an open or galactic star cluster about 8,000 light-years distant toward the constellation…
Eruptive Prominence
Activity on our parent star continues to increase as the sun approaches a maximum in its 11-year solar cycle , expected in the year 2000. On June 14 - only a week before the…
M80: A Dense Globular Cluster
If our Sun were part of M80, the night sky would glow like a jewel box of bright stars. M80 , also known as NGC 6093, is one of about 250 globular clusters that survive in our…
A Sun Pillar
Have you ever seen a sun pillar ? When the air is cold and the Sun is rising or setting , falling ice crystals can reflect sunlight and create an unusual column of light. Ice…
Four Faces of Mars
As Mars rotates, most of its surface becomes visible. During Earth 's recent pass between Mars and the Sun , the Hubble Space Telescope was able to capture the most detailed…
A Landing On Mars
On July 4th , 1997 - using its own array of fireworks, a parachute, and airbags - the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft successfully came to rest on the surface of Mars at 10:07 AM…
NGC 2440: Cocoon of a New White Dwarf
Like a butterfly , a white dwarf star begins its life by casting off a cocoon that enclosed its former self. In this analogy, however, the Sun would be a caterpillar and the…
Shadow Of A Comet
Hale-Bopp , the Great Comet of 1997, may have been the most viewed comet in history - visible even from bright metropolitan skies. Astronomers are now reporting that this…
Apollo 17's Lunar Rover
In December of 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent about 75 hours exploring the Moon's Taurus-Littrow valley while colleague Ronald Evans orbited…
NGC 6934 from Gemini North
What's going on near the center of globular cluster NGC 6934? The blur caused by the Earth's atmosphere has prevented astronomers from discerning individual stars in this unusual…
Gemini North Telescope Inaugurated
A new mammoth telescope has begun to inspect the northern sky. The 8-meter Gemini North telescope, pictured above , was dedicated last week in Hawaii, with images documenting its…
From Mars with Love
Are Martians trying to tell us something? An indentation has been recently photographed on Mars that resembles a heart, a common human symbol for love. Because intelligent…
COBE Dipole: Speeding Through the Universe
Our Earth is not at rest. The Earth moves around the Sun . The Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way Galaxy . The Milky Way Galaxy orbits in the Local Group . The Local Group…
Shells in the Egg Nebula
The Egg Nebula is taking a beating. Like a baby chick pecking its way out of an egg, the star in the center of the Egg Nebula is casting away shells of gas and dust as it slowly…
Viewing discoveries from 19 July 1999 through 26 June 1999.