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.
SOHO Comet 367: Sungrazer
The most prolific comet discovering instrument in history rides aboard the sun-staring SOHO spacecraft, 1.5 million kilometers sunward of planet Earth. Of course, most of these…
Under A Sunspot
At the Sun's surface, sunspots are known to be dark, planet-sized regions of intense magnetic fields. But what lies below ? Using observations from the Michelson Doppler Imager…
A Sun Pillar in Red and Violet
Sometimes the unknown is beautiful. In 2000 February near Lake Tahoe, Nevada , two amateur photographers noticed an unusual red column of light rise mysteriously from a setting…
In the Center of Spiral Galaxy M83
What's happening at the center of spiral galaxy M83? Just about everything, from the looks of it. M83 , visible in the inset image on the upper left, is one of the closest spiral…
Aurora Over Winnipeg
What's happening above that city? The city is Winnipeg , Canada , and the phenomenon is aurora . These past few months have been active ones for our Sun , producing several…
Leonids from Leo
Is Leo leaking? Leo , the famous sky constellation visible on the left of the above all-sky photograph , appears to be the source of all the meteors seen in 1998's Leonids Meteor…
Bright Stars, Dim Galaxy
These two clusters of bright, newly formed stars surrounded by a glowing nebula lie 10 million light-years away in the dim, irregular galaxy cataloged as NGC 2366. The Hubble…
THEMIS of Mars
Not an ancient Greek goddess, THEMIS is modern acronese for THermal EMission Imaging System . Above is this remarkable instrument's premier infrared image of Mars, from the newly…
M87's Energetic Jet
An energetic jet from the core of giant elliptical galaxy M87 stretches outward for 5,000 light-years. This monstrous jet appears in the panels above to be a knotted and irregular…
Halloween and the Ghost Head Nebula
Halloween's origin is ancient and astronomical. Since the fifth century BC, Halloween has been celebrated as a cross-quarter day , a day halfway between an equinox (equal day /…
Anticrepuscular Rays Over Colorado
What's happening over the horizon? Although the scene may appear somehow supernatural , nothing more unusual is occurring than a setting Sun and some well placed clouds. Pictured…
Spinning Black Holes and MCG-6-30-15
What makes the core of galaxy MCG-6-30-15 so bright? Some astronomers believe the answer is a massive spinning black hole . If so, this would be the first observational indication…
NGC 2346: A Butterfly-Shaped Planetary Nebula
It may look like a butterfly, but it's bigger than our Solar System . NGC 2346 is a planetary nebula made of gas and dust that has evolved into a familiar shape . At the heart of…
Sher 25: A Pending Supernova?
No supernova has ever been predicted. These dramatic stellar explosions that destroy stars and disperse elements that compose people and planets are not so well understood that…
Elements in the Aftermath
Massive stars spend their brief lives furiously burning nuclear fuel. Through fusion at extreme temperatures and densities surrounding the stellar core, nuclei of light elements…
Odyssey at Mars
After an interplanetary journey lasting 200 days, the Mars Odyssey spacecraft has entered orbit around the Red Planet. This latest success is welcome as in the past, Mars has…
The Matter Of Galaxy Clusters
Situated over 2,000,000,000 ( two billion ) light-years from Earth, galaxies in cluster Abell 2390 (top) and MS2137.3-2353 (bottom) are seen in the right hand panels above,…
Emission and Reflection in NGC 6559
Bright gas and dark dust permeate the space between stars in a nebula known as NGC 6559 . The gas, primarily hydrogen , is responsible for the diffuse red glow of the emission…
The First Rocket Launch from Cape Canaveral
A new chapter in space flight began on 1950 July with the launch of the first rocket from Cape Canaveral , Florida : the Bumper 2. Shown above , the Bumper 2 was an ambitious…
The Sombrero Galaxy from VLT
Why does the Sombrero Galaxy look like a hat? Reasons include the Sombrero 's unusually large and extended central bulge of stars, and dark prominent dust lanes that appear in a…
The Radio Sky: Tuned to 408MHz
Tune your radio telescope to 408MHz (408 million cycles per second) and check out the Radio Sky! You should find that frequency on your dial somewhere between US broadcast…
X-Ray Stars and Winds in the Rosette Nebula
This mosaic of x-ray images cuts a swath across the photogenic Rosette Nebula, a stellar nursery 5,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Monoceros, the Unicorn .…
Pluto: New Horizons
Pluto's horizon spans the foreground in this artist's vision, gazing sunward across that distant and not yet explored world. Titled New Horizons, the painting also depicts Pluto's…
Mars Engulfed
For months now, Mars has been engulfed by a great dust storm, the biggest seen raging across the Red Planet in decades . As a result, these two Hubble Space Telescope storm watch…
Viewing discoveries from 9 November 2001 through 17 October 2001.