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.
Mars Rising Behind Elephant Rock
Yesterday, at about 10 am Universal Time , Mars and Earth passed closer than in nearly 60,000 years. Mars , noticeably red, remains the brightest object in the eastern sky just…
Big Mars from Hubble
At about 10 am Universal Time today, Mars and Earth will pass closer than in nearly 60,000 years. Mars , noticeably red, will be the brightest object in the eastern sky just after…
Earth Webcam Catches Mars Rotation
Mars won't look this good. Tonight and over the next few days, when Mars is at its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, you might get your best view ever of our…
The Northern Milky Way
Many of the stars in our home Milky Way Galaxy appear together as a dim band on the sky that passes nearly over the Earth's north and south poles. Pictured above is the part of…
Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars
The largest canyon in the Solar System cuts a wide swath across the face of Mars . Named Valles Marineris , the grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as…
The Tarantula Zone
The Tarantula Nebula is more than 1,000 light-years across - a giant emission nebula within our neighboring galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud . Inside this cosmic arachnid lies a…
Shadow Rise
As the Sun sets , the Earth's shadow rises up from the east. The subtle beauty of this daily apparition is often overlooked in favor of the brighter, more colorful western…
X-Rays from M17
About 5,000 light-years away , toward the constellation Sagittarius and the center of our galaxy, lies the bright star forming region cataloged as M17 . In visible light, M17's…
The E Nebula in Aquila
Several unusual strands of darkness are prominent toward the constellation of Aquila . This particular dark nebula is known as the E Nebula, for its evocative shape, or B142 and…
Mars Through a Small Telescope
How does Mars appear through a small telescope? Viewed with the unaided eye or through a small telescope , possibly the most striking part of Mars' appearance is its red color.…
Bright Lights, Dark City
Last Thursday, millions of people had an unexpectedly good view of a dark night sky . Usually, the reflection of city lights off of local air impurities makes it hard for casual…
Natural Saturn On The Cassini Cruise
What could you see approaching Saturn aboard an interplanetary cruise ship? Your view would likely resemble this subtly shaded image of the gorgeous ringed gas giant. Processed by…
Thackeray's Globules
Rich star fields and glowing hydrogen gas silhouette dense, opaque clouds of interstellar gas and dust in this Hubble Space Telescope close-up of IC 2944 , a bright star forming…
Sedimentary Mars
High-resolution imaging of an area in the Schiaparelli Basin of Mars on June 3 by the MGS Mars Orbiter camera produced this stunning example of layered formations within an old…
Dark Matter Map
The total mass within giant galaxy cluster CL0025+1654 , about 4.5 billion light-years away , produces a cosmic gravitational lens -- bending light as predicted by Einstein's…
Mars Rising Behind Poodle Rock
Have you seen Mars lately? As Earth and Mars near their closest approach in nearly 60,000 years on August 27, the red planet has begun to appear dramatically bright and show…
X-Rays from Stephan's Quintet
Stephan's Quintet is a picturesque but clearly troubled grouping of galaxies about 300 million light-years away toward the high-flying constellation Pegasus . Spanning over…
Elements of the Swan Nebula
In the depths of the dark clouds of dust and molecular gas known as M17 , stars continue to form. Also known as the Omega Nebula and Horseshoe Nebula, the darkness of M17's…
Lunation
Our Moon's appearance changes nightly. This time-lapse sequence shows what our Moon looks like during a lunation , a complete lunar cycle. As the Moon orbits the Earth , the half…
A Perseid Aurora
Just after the Moon set but before the Sun rose in the early morning hours of 2000 August 12, meteors pelted the Earth from the direction of the constellation Perseus , while ions…
Blue Stragglers in NGC 6397
In our neck of the Galaxy stars are too far apart to be in danger of colliding, but in the dense cores of globular star clusters star collisions may be relatively common. In fact,…
Palomar at Night
What's wrong with this picture? The summer night sky is clear, and moonlight illuminates the dome of the Hale 200-inch Telescope at Palomar Observatory , northeast of San Diego,…
Dusty Galaxy Centaurus A
Why is peculiar galaxy Centaurus A so dusty? Dramatic dust lanes that run across the galaxy's center mark Cen A . These dust lanes are so thick they almost completely obscure the…
Shuttle Ferry
How does a space shuttle that landed in California get back to Florida for its next launch ? The answer is by ferry. NASA operates two commercial Boeing 747 airplanes modified to…
Viewing discoveries from 28 August 2003 through 5 August 2003.