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.
Layers of the Martian South Polar Cap
The South Pole of Mars is stranger than was previously thought. Pictured above are unexpectedly complex layers photographed recently by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft…
Reflection Nebula M78
An eerie blue glow and ominous columns of dark dust highlight M78, a bright reflection nebula in the constellation of Orion . The dust not only absorbs light, but also reflects…
Giant Cluster Bends, Breaks Images
What are those strange blue objects? Many are images of a single, unusual, beaded, blue, ring-like galaxy which just happens to line-up behind a giant cluster of galaxies. Cluster…
Journey to the Center of the Galaxy
In Jules Verne 's science fiction classic A Journey to the Center of the Earth , Professor Hardwigg and his fellow explorers encounter many strange and exciting wonders. What…
M82: Starburst In X-rays
Star formation occurs at a faster pace in M82 -- a galaxy with about 10 times the rate of massive star birth (and death) compared to our Milky Way . Winds from massive stars and…
Blue Marble 2000
This newly released digital portrait of our planet is reminiscent of the Apollo-era pictures of the “big blue marble” Earth from space. To create it , researchers at Goddard Space…
Redshift 5.8: A New Farthest Quasar
The distance record for a quasar has been broken yet again. At the present time, no other object in the universe has been found to be more distant than the above speck. The…
Europa: Ice Line
This bright white swath cutting across the surface of icy Jovian moon Europa is known as Agenor Linea . In all about 1000 kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide, only a section is…
Flying Over Asteroid Eros' West End
The robot spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker continues to orbit asteroid Eros. This condensed 40-minute long time-lapse sequence taken last month shows what it looks like to pass within…
IC 4406: A Seemingly Square Nebula
How can a round star make a square nebula? This conundrum came to light with the discovery of planetary nebulae like IC 4406. IC 4406 is most probably cylindrical, with its square…
Surveyor Hops
This panorama of the cratered lunar surface was constructed from images returned by the US Surveyor 6 lander. Surveyor 6 was not the first spacecraft to accomplish a soft landing…
Supernova Remnant E0102-72 from Radio to X-Ray
Not all stars form a big Q after they explode. The shape of supernova remnant E0102-72 , however, is giving astronomers a clue about how tremendous explosions disperse elements…
Exploring Comet Tails
Comets are known for their tails. In the spring of 1997 and 1996 Comet Hale-Bopp (above) and Comet Hyakutake gave us stunning examples as they passed near the Sun. These extremely…
The Local Bubble and the Galactic Neighborhood
What surrounds the Sun in this neck of the Milky Way Galaxy ? Our current best guess is depicted in the above map of the surrounding 1500 light year s constructed from various…
The Local Interstellar Cloud
The stars are not alone. In the disk of our Milky Way Galaxy about 10 percent of visible matter is in the form of gas, called the interstellar medium (ISM). The ISM is not…
Aurora in Red and Yellow
The past week brought some spectacular aurora to northern skies. These aurorae were caused by a large interplanetary shock wave that exploded from the Sun on April 4 . When the…
Mysterious Pluto and Charon
Pluto is the only planet in our Solar System remaining unphotographed by a passing spacecraft. Distant Pluto and its moon Charon therefore remain somewhat mysterious. In addition…
Compton Observatory In Orbit
Nine years ago the massive Compton Gamma Ray Observatory was deployed in low earth orbit. Sparkling interior reflections and the bright limb of the Earth are visible in this 1991…
Celebrating Hubble With NGC 6751
Planetary nebulae do look simple, round, and planet-like in small telescopes. But images from the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope have become well known for showing these…
Venus, Moon, and Neighbors
Rising before the Sun on February 2nd, astro photographer Joe Orman anticipated this apparition of the bright morning star Venus near a lovely crescent Moon above a neighbor's…
The M7 Open Star Cluster in Scorpius
M7 is one of the most prominent open clusters of stars on the sky. The cluster, dominated by bright blue stars , can be seen with the naked eye in a dark sky in the tail of the…
A Superwind from the Cigar Galaxy
What's lighting up the Cigar Galaxy? M82 , as this irregular galaxy is also known, was stirred up by a recent pass near large spiral galaxy M81 . This doesn't fully explain the…
A Twisted Solar Eruptive Prominence
A huge eruptive prominence is seen moving out from our Sun in this condensed half-hour time-lapse sequence. Ten Earths could easily fit in the “claw” of this seemingly solar…
Eagle EGGs in M16
Star forming regions known as “EGGs” are uncovered at the end of this giant pillar of gas and dust in the Eagle Nebula ( M 16). EGGs, short for evaporating gaseous globules , are…
Viewing discoveries from 25 April 2000 through 2 April 2000.