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.
Spirals On Edge
Spiral galaxies viewed face-on display a grand design , with graceful spiral arms traced by bright star clusters and glowing stellar nurseries. When seen edge-on, their appearance…
Space Station Shows Off New Robot Arm
The International Space Station (ISS) continues to grow. Last month, the crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavor delivered new Logistics Modules and installed the new Canadarm2 on the…
GRO J1655-40: Evidence for a Spinning Black Hole
In the center of a swirling whirlpool of hot gas is likely a beast that has never been seen directly: a black hole . Studies of the bright light emitted by the swirling gas…
One Hundred-Kilometer Terrain on Venus
Even the hot and cracked surface of Venus has rolling hills. Although never actually photographed from up-close, images of the Venusian surface like that shown above have been…
The Pleiades Star Cluster
It is the most famous star cluster on the sky. The Pleiades can be seen without binoculars from even the depths of a light-polluted city . Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45…
Shepard Flies Freedom 7
Forty years ago today ( May 5, 1961 ), at the dawn of the space age , NASA controllers “lit the candle” and sent Alan Shepard arcing into space atop a Redstone rocket . The…
Protoplanetary Survivors in Orion
The Orion Nebula is a nuturing stellar nursery filled with hot young stars and their natal clouds of gas and dust. But for planetary systems , the active star-forming region can…
Far Side of the Sun
You may think it's impossible to see through the Sun , but maps of the Sun's far side are now made routinely by instruments on board the sun-staring SOHO spacecraft. This is one…
Planet Building in HD 100546
More than 100 billion boulders may be swarming in the disk around nearby star HD 100546 . In a scene thought similar to the early years of our own Solar System , ever larger rocks…
Antarctica Hears Little Normal Matter in the Big Bang
On the frozen ice near the bottom of our world, increasingly sophisticated instruments listen for a more precise echo of how our universe started. Sunday, independent…
Approaching the International Space Station
Earlier this month the crew of the US Space Shuttle Endeavor took in this view as they approached the developing International Space Station (ISS). The Endeavor and ISS crew…
Ice Fishing for Cosmic Neutrinos
Scientists are melting holes in the bottom of the world. In fact, several holes have been melted near the South Pole , and they are now being used as astronomical observatories.…
The Moon and All the Crashes
A clear blue summer sky finally grows dark and the new telescope, hastily set up in the backyard, generates excitment and anticipation. “I bought it for the kids.”, Dad assures…
Visitors' Galaxy Gallery
A tantalizing assortment of island universes is assembled here. From top left to bottom right are the lovely but distant galaxies M61 , NGC 4449 , NGC 4725 , NGC 5068 , NGC 5247 ,…
Horsehead Rides Again
Difficult to see in small telescopes, the Horsehead nebula was recently selected by internet voters as a target for the Hubble Space Telescope . Above (top) is Hubble's detailed…
Space Laser Creates Artificial Star
Some astronomers don't like stars. Bright star fluctuations can indicate how the Earth's atmosphere is changing, but many times no bright star exists in the direction where…
NGC 2264: Stars, Dust, and Gas
The nebula surrounding bright star S Mon is filled with dark dust and glowing gas. The strange shapes that haunt this star forming region originate from fine interstellar dust…
Space Shuttle Lifts Off for Space Station
Last Thursday, Space Shuttle Endeavor lifted off on course for the latest round of building the International Space Station (ISS) in orbit around Earth. One of the highlights of…
Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae
Stars come in bunches. Of the over 200 globular star clusters that orbit the center of our Milky Way Galaxy , 47 Tucanae is the second brightest globular cluster (behind Omega…
Apollo 12: Stereo View Near Surveyor Crater
This weekend's stereo picture finds Apollo 12 astronaut Pete Conrad standing on the lunar surface near the southern rim of Surveyor Crater in November of 1969. With red/blue…
Io: Moon Over Jupiter
How big is the Jovian moon Io ? The most volcanic body in the Solar System, Io (usually pronounced “EYE-oh”) is 3,600 kilometers in diameter, about the size of planet Earth's…
Sunspot Stack
Welcome to multiwavelength astronomy ! From top to bottom, these stacked panels show the largest sunspot group in a decade in visible, extreme ultraviolet, and x-ray light. All…
A Higher Dimensional Universe?
Does our universe have higher but unusual spatial dimensions ? This idea has been gaining popularity to help explain why vastly separated parts of our universe appear so similar ,…
Colorful Water Clouds Over Mars
One place where water can be found on Mars is in clouds . In the above picture colorful water clouds are visible just after sunrise in and around a maze of canyons known as Noctis…
Viewing discoveries from 10 May 2001 through 17 April 2001.