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.
Active Regions, CMEs, and X-Class Flares
Space Weather forcasters are predicting major storm conditions over the next few days as the active Sun has produced at least three strong flares and a large coronal mass ejection…
Up Close to Jupiter's Moon Io
Above is the highest resolution photograph yet taken of the Solar System 's strangest moon. The surface of Jupiter 's moon Io is home to violent volcanoes that are so active they…
A Continuous Eruption on Jupiter's Moon Io
A volcano on Jupiter's moon Io has been photographed recently during an ongoing eruption. Hot glowing lava is visible on the left on this representative-color image . A glowing…
In the Heart of the Crab
The supernova explosion that formed the Crab Nebula was first seen on the year 1054. Last week, astronomers released a new image of the still-evolving center of the explosion. The…
MyCn18: An Hourglass Nebula
The sands of time are running out for the central star of this hourglass-shaped planetary nebula . With its nuclear fuel exhausted, this brief, spectacular, closing phase of a…
Compton Re-entry
Nine years ago the massive Compton Gamma Ray Observatory , the second of NASA's space-based great observatories , was deployed in low earth orbit. Lofted above the protective…
The Secret Spiral Of IC3328
IC3328 is an otherwise unremarkable dwarf elliptical galaxy about 50 million light-years away in the Virgo cluster . But hidden within IC3328 is a subtle, beautifully symmetric…
X-Ray Wind From NGC 3783
A black hole is supposed to inexorably attract matter. But the intense radiation generated as material swirls and plunges into its high gravity field also heats up surrounding gas…
Astronaut at Work
Did you ever have a day where everything got turned around and you just couldn't tell which way was up? Fortunately, this didn't happen to astronaut James S. Voss on May 21, who…
The Very Large Array Turns Twenty
The most photogenic array of radio telescopes in the world has also been one of the most productive. Each of the 27 radio telescopes in the Very Large Array (VLA) is the size of a…
Olympus Mons Volcano on Mars
Scroll right to virtually climb the largest volcano in the Solar System . Olympus Mons on Mars measures three times higher than Earth's highest mountain , and has a volume over…
Skylab Over Earth
Skylab was an orbiting laboratory launched by a Saturn V rocket in May 1973. Skylab was visited three times by NASA astronauts who sometimes stayed as long as two and a half…
M51: The Center Of The Whirlpool
In the center of M51 , a spiral galaxy 23 million light-years away, astronomers have identified a dense region of young stars. Viewed face-on in the constellation Canes Venatici ,…
Solar Sail
Nearly 400 years ago astronomer Johannes Kepler observed comet tails blown by a solar breeze and suggested that vessels might likewise navigate through space using appropriately…
Eros Horizon View
Since April 30, the robotic NEAR-Shoemaker spacecraft has been orbiting only 31 miles from asteroid Eros . Cruising over the asteroid's north and south poles at a leisurely 7…
Pleiades, Planets, And Hot Plasma
Bright stars of the Pleiades, four planets, and erupting solar plasma are all captured in this spectacular image from the space-based SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO). In…
M4: The Closest Known Globular Cluster
M4 is a globular cluster visible in dark skies about one degree west of the bright star Antares in the constellation Scorpius . M4 is perhaps the closest globular cluster at 7000…
Light Bridges on the Sun
Bridges the length of a planet can form on the Sun in a matter of hours. Known as light bridges , these structures may form as large sunspot groups decay. Above , one of the…
Antares and Rho Ophiuchi
Why is the sky near Antares and Rho Ophiuchi so colorful? The colors result from a mixture of objects and processes. Fine dust illuminated from the front by starlight produces…
Sungrazer
Arcing toward a fiery fate, this Sungrazer comet was recorded by the SOHO spacecraft's Large Angle Spectrometric COronagraph (LASCO) on Dec. 23rd, 1996. LASCO uses an occulting…
An Aurora Before the Storm
Early April brought some of the most intense auroral storms this decade. An aurora on April 6 was reported to be the largest visible on Earth since 1989, and was seen throughout…
The Near Infrared Sky
Was this picture taken from outside our Galaxy? No, it is a composite taken from Earth orbit , well inside our Milky Way Galaxy . In light just a little too red for human eyes to…
The Far Infrared Sky
Three major sources contribute to the far- infrared sky : our Solar System , our Galaxy , and our Universe . The above recently released image , in representative colors, is the…
QSO H1821+643 Indicates a Universe Filled with Hydrogen
A quasar slightly depleted of a specific color of light may indicate that our universe is filled with massive amounts of ionized hydrogen . Light from QSO H1821+643, pictured…
Viewing discoveries from 8 June 2000 through 16 May 2000.