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.
The Long Jet of Pictor A
A jet stretching nearly a million light years has been imaged emanating from galaxy Pictor A. The thin jet of electrons and protons shoots out at nearly light-speed likely from…
The Milky Way Near the Southern Cross
This breathtaking patch of sky would be above you were you to stand at the South Pole of the Earth . Just above and to the right of this photograph's center are the four stars…
The Last Moon Shot
In 1865 Jules Verne predicted the invention of a space capsule that could carry people. In his science fiction story “From the Earth to the Moon” , he outlined his vision of a…
APOD Is Five Years Old Today
Welcome to the sixth year of Astronomy Picture of the Day ( APOD )! Above are the industrious Robert Nemiroff (left) and persistent Jerry Bonnell (right), still engaged in…
X-rays From The Perseus Cluster Core
The Perseus Cluster of thousands of galaxies, 320 million light-years distant, is one of the most massive objects in the Universe . At its core lies the giant cannibal galaxy…
A Slice of the Universe with 2dF
What can 100,000 galaxies tell you? Perhaps the structure and composition of the universe. Astronomers using the Two Degree Field (2dF) spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian…
The Carina Nebula in Infrared
About three million years ago, the stars in the Keyhole Nebula began to form. The above picture of the Keyhole Nebula , also known as the Carina Nebula or NGC 3372, shows in…
A Bubbling Galaxy Center
What's happening in the center of this galaxy? Close inspection of the center of NGC 4438 , as visible in this recently released representative-color image by the Hubble Space…
Sirius: The Brightest Star in the Night
Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Sirius is visible on the far left of the above photograph, to the left of the constellation of Orion and Comet Hale-Bopp .…
M101: An Ultraviolet View
This picture of giant spiral galaxy Messier 101 (M101) was taken by the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT). UIT flew into orbit as part of the Astro 2 mission on-board the Space…
Vela Pulsar: Neutron Star-Ring-Jet
This stunning image from the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory is centered on the Vela pulsar -- the collapsed stellar core within the Vela supernova remnant some 800 light-years…
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 ,…
Viewing discoveries from 19 June 2000 through 27 May 2000.