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.
M20: The Trifid Nebula
Unspeakable beauty and unimaginable bedlam can be found together in the Trifid Nebula . Also known as M20, this photogenic nebula is visible with good binoculars towards the…
Flying Over Asteroid Eros
What would it look like to fly over an asteroid? Spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker in orbit around asteroid 433 Eros found out earlier this month when it recorded its first fly-over…
Venus' Once Molten Surface
If you could look at Venus with radar eyes - this is what you might see. This computer reconstruction of the surface of Venus was created from data from the Magellan spacecraft .…
The Earth Also Rises
The Lunar Orbiter 1 spacecraft was launched in 1966 to map the lunar surface in preparation for the Apollo moon landings . NASA's plucky robotic explorer performed its job well…
A Mystery In Gamma Rays
Gamma rays are the most energetic form of light, packing a million or more times the energy of visible light photons. What if you could see gamma rays? If you could, the familiar…
Inside Mars
What's inside Mars ? From orbit, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft has recorded detailed images of the red planet since July 1997. Still, its cameras can not look beneath…
A Spherule from Outer Space
When a meteorite strikes the Moon , the energy of the impact melts some of the splattering rock , a fraction of which might cool into tiny glass beads . Many of these glass beads…
HH111's 12 Light-Year Star Jet
The complex interactions of three stars in the Orion B molecular cloud complex have resulted in the ejection of particles along a 12 light-year long jet. One of the stars in the…
Mercury on the Horizon
Have you ever seen the planet Mercury? Because Mercury orbits so close to the Sun, it is never seen far from the Sun, and so is only visible near sunrise or sunset . If trailing…
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…
A Wind From The Sun
A wind from the Sun blows through our Solar System . The behaviour of comet tails as they flapped and waved in this interplanetary breeze gave astronomers the first hint of its…
Martian Dust Devil Trails
Who's been marking up Mars? This portion of a recent high-resolution picture from the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft shows twisting dark trails criss-crossing a…
NEAR Shoemaker Views Eros
Orbiting asteroid 433 Eros, 145 million miles from Earth, NASA's NEAR spacecraft has been returning stunning views as its year long mission of exploration gets underway . A mosaic…
Weak Lensing Distorts the Universe
Is the distant universe really what it appears to be? Astronomers hope not. Intervening dark matter , which is normally invisible, might show its presence by distorting images…
A GRB 000301C Symphony
Telescopic instruments in Earth and space are still tracking a tremendous explosion that occurred across the universe. A nearly unprecedented symphony of international…
A Panorama of Oddities in Orion A
New stars, fast jets, and shocked gas clouds all occupy Orion A, a giant molecular cloud just south of the Orion Nebula . The bright object visible below and slightly left of…
Supernova 1994D and the Unexpected Universe
Far away, long ago, a star exploded. Supernova 1994D , visible as the bright spot on the lower left, occurred in the outskirts of disk galaxy NGC 4526 . Supernova 1994D was not of…
Messier Marathon
Gripped by an astronomical spring fever , it's once again time for many amateur stargazers to embark on a Messier Marathon ! The Vernal Equinox occurs March 20, marking the first…
Sky and Planets
On February 10th, an evocative evening sky above Rocklin, California, USA inspired astrophotographer Steve Sumner to record this remarkable sight - five planets and the Moon. Near…
Sun Storm: A Coronal Mass Ejection
Late last month another erupting filament lifted off the active solar surface and blasted this enormous bubble of magnetic plasma into space. Direct light from the sun is blocked…
Nearer To Asteroid Eros
As the robot spacecraft NEAR lowers itself toward asteroid 433 Eros , more surface details are becoming visible. Last week's maneuvers brought NEAR to within 204 kilometers of the…
Zal Patera on Jupiter's Moon Io
The Galileo orbiter 's flyby of Io last November captured an unusual part of Jupiter 's volcanic moon. From 26,000 kilometers away, Zal Patera was found to be a cauldron of…
Abell 2142: Clash of the Galaxy Clusters
Over the course of billions of years, whole clusters of galaxies merge. Above is an X-ray image of Abell 2142 , the result of the collision of two huge clusters of galaxies , and…
The Pipe Dark Nebula
The dark nebula predominant at the lower left of the above photograph is known as the Pipe Nebula. The dark clouds, suggestively shaped like smoke rising from a pipe, are caused…
Viewing discoveries from 28 March 2000 through 5 March 2000.