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.
A Magellanic Starfield
Stars of many types and colors are visible in this Hubble Space Telescope close-up of a starfield in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Over 10,000 stars are visible -- the…
POX 186: Not So Long Ago
Not so long ago and not so far, far away, a galaxy was born . Seen in this Hubble Space Telescope image, the island universe of stars, gas, and dust cataloged as POX 186 is a mere…
Mt. Etna Eruption Plume
Mt. Etna has been erupting for hundreds of thousands of years. In late October of last year, however, earthquakes triggered a particularly vigorous outburst from this well known…
NGC 6960: The Witch's Broom Nebula
Ten thousand years ago, before the dawn of recorded human history , a new light must suddenly have appeared in the night sky and faded after a few weeks. Today we know this light…
A Year of Assessing Astronomical Hazards
Could an asteroid destroy civilization on Earth? Mountain-sized space rocks could potentially impact the Earth causing global effects, and perhaps even be mistaken for a nuclear…
A Sun Pillar
Have you ever seen a sun pillar ? When the air is cold and the Sun is rising or setting , falling ice crystals can reflect sunlight and create an unusual column of light. Ice…
NGC 1818: A Young Globular Cluster
Globular clusters once ruled the Milky Way . Back in the old days , back when our Galaxy first formed, perhaps thousands of globular clusters roamed our Galaxy . Today, there are…
Mir Dreams
This dream -like image of Mir was recorded by astronauts as the Space Shuttle Atlantis approached the Russian space station prior to docking during the STS-76 mission. Sporting…
X-Ray Mystery in RCW 38
A mere 6,000 light-years distant and sailing through the constellation Vela , star cluster RCW 38 is full of powerful stars. It's no surprise that these stars, only a million…
Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica
Where is the best place on Earth to find meteorites ? Although meteors fall all over the world, they usually just sink to the bottom of an ocean , are buried by shifting terrain,…
Orion Rising
Orion always comes up sideways ... and was caught in the act earlier this month by astronomer Jimmy Westlake, stargazing eastward over the Rocky Mountains north of Leadville,…
Spring Dust Storms at the North Pole of Mars
Spring reached the north pole of Mars in May, and brought with it the usual dust storms . As the north polar cap begins to thaw, a temperature difference occurs between the cold…
Stars and Dust Through Baade's Window
Billions of stars light up the direction toward the center of our Galaxy . The vast majority of these stars are themselves billions of years old, rivaling their home Milky Way…
Summer at the South Pole
The December solstice brings the beginning of Winter to Earth's Northern Hemisphere and Summer time to the South! This view of Earth's Southern Hemisphere near the beginning of…
Solstice Celebration
Aloha and Season's greetings! On December 22nd, at 01:14 Universal Time (December 21, 3:14pm Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time ), the Sun reaches its southernmost point in planet…
Colorful Clouds of Orion
Revisiting one of the most famous nebulae in planet Earth's night sky, astrophotographer Robert Gendler has constructed this stunning, color-enhanced mosaic of the region…
RAPTOR Images GRB 021211
On December 11 astronomers found one of the brightest and most distant explosions in the Universe - a gamma-ray burst - hiding in the glare of a relatively nearby star. The…
Io Volcano Culann Patera
What causes the unusual colors surrounding Io's volcanoes? Io , the innermost large moon of Jupiter , is known to be the most tumultuous body in the Solar System . Approximately…
Beefing Up the International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) will be the largest human-made object ever to orbit the Earth . The station is so large that it could not be launched all at once -- it is…
Night and Day in Melas Chasma on Mars
What types of terrain are found on Mars? Part of the answer comes from thermal imaging by the robot spacecraft 2001 Mars Odyssey currently orbiting Mars . The above picture is a…
A Network of Microlensing Caustics
A virtual sky map like this would be of interest to astronomers studying gravitational microlensing. In microlensing , the gravity of stars near the line of sight can act to…
IC 418: The Spirograph Nebula
What is creating the strange texture of IC 418? Dubbed the Spirograph Nebula for its resemblance to drawings from a cyclical drawing tool , planetary nebula IC 418 shows patterns…
The Crown of the Sun
During a total solar eclipse, the Sun's extensive outer atmosphere or corona is an awesome and inspirational sight . Yet the subtle shades and shimmering features of the corona…
Apollo 17: Last on the Moon
In December of 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent about 75 hours on the Moon, in the Taurus-Littrow valley , while colleague Ronald Evans orbited…
Viewing discoveries from 4 January 2003 through 12 December 2002.