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.
Inside the Eagle Nebula
From afar, the whole thing looks like an Eagle . A closer look at the Eagle Nebula , however, shows the bright region is actually a window into the center of a larger dark shell…
Apollo 11: Catching Some Sun
Bright sunlight glints and long dark shadows dramatize this image of the lunar surface taken by Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first to walk on the Moon . Pictured is the…
Galileo's Europa
Launched in 1989 and looping through the jovian system since late 1995, the voyage of NASA's Galileo spacecraft will soon come to an end. The spacecraft has been targeted to…
Saturn by Three
These three views of Saturn were recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope on March 7th of this year, as the southern hemisphere of the solar system's most gorgeous planet reached…
The 2MASS Galaxy Sky
Are the nearest galaxies distributed randomly? A plot of over one million of the brightest “extended sources” detected by the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) shows that they are…
Hurricane Isabel Approaches
Where will Hurricane Isabel go? One of the stronger storm systems of modern times appears headed for one the more populated seaboards on planet Earth -- the east coast of the USA…
Globular Cluster M3
This huge ball of stars predates our Sun. Long before humankind evolved, before dinosaurs roamed , and even before our Earth existed, ancient globs of stars condensed and orbited…
The Crab Nebula from VLT
The Crab Nebula , filled with mysterious filaments, is the result of a star that was seen to explode in 1054 AD . This spectacular supernova explosion was recorded by Chinese and…
NGC 3132: The Eight Burst Nebula
It's the dim star, not the bright one, near the center of NGC 3132 that created this odd but beautiful planetary nebula . Nicknamed the Eight-Burst Nebula and the Southern Ring…
A Note on the Perseus Cluster
A truly enormous collection of thousands of galaxies, the Perseus Cluster - like other large galaxy clusters - is filled with hot, x-ray emitting gas. The x-ray hot gas (not the…
NGC 3370: A Sharper View
Similar in size and grand design to our own Milky Way , spiral galaxy NGC 3370 lies about 100 million light-years away toward the constellation Leo. Recorded here in exquisite…
Aurora Over Clouds
Aurorae usually occur high above the clouds. The auroral glow is created when fast-moving charged particles from the Earth's magnetosphere impact air molecules high in the Earth's…
A Gemini Sky
Where will Gemini take us tonight? It is dusk and Gemini North , one of the largest telescopes on planet Earth , prepares to peer into the distant universe. Gemini's flexible…
Stars and Dust of the Lagoon Nebula
The large majestic Lagoon Nebula is home for many young stars and hot gas. Spanning 100 light years across while lying only about 5000 light years distant, the Lagoon Nebulae is…
The Galactic Center in Infrared
The center of our Galaxy is a busy place. In visible light , much of the Galactic Center is obscured by opaque dust . In infrared light , however, dust glows more and obscures…
Jupiter Unpeeled
Slice Jupiter from pole to pole, peel back its outer layers of clouds , stretch them onto a flat surface ... and for all your trouble you'd end up with something that looks a lot…
SIRTF Streak
Streaking skyward, a Boeing Delta 2-Heavy rocket carries NASA's Space InfraRed Telescope Facility (SIRTF) aloft during the early morning hours of August 25th. The dramatic scene…
Composite Crab
The Crab Pulsar, a city-sized, magnetized neutron star spinning 30 times a second, lies at the center of this composite image of the inner region of the well-known Crab Nebula .…
Galactic Supernova Remnant IC 443
About 8000 years ago, a star in our Galaxy exploded. Ancient humans might have noticed the supernova as a temporary star, but modern humans can see the expanding shell of gas even…
Contemplating Mars
Is that really another world? Thousands of people the world over lined up last week to see Mars through a telescope as the red planet and Earth passed unusually close together in…
A Beautiful Trifid
The beautiful Trifid Nebula (aka M20) , a photogenic study in cosmic contrasts, lies about 5,000 light-years away toward the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. A star forming…
The View from Everest
What would it be like to stand atop the tallest mountain on Earth? To see a full panoramic vista from there, scroll right. Visible are snow peaked mountains near and far,…
Recycling Cassiopeia A
For billions of years, massive stars in our Milky Way Galaxy have lived spectacular lives. Collapsing from vast cosmic clouds , their nuclear furnaces ignite and create heavy…
The Mineral Moon
Even if the Moon really were made of green cheese it probably wouldn't look this bizarre. Still, this mosaic of 53 images was recorded by the Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft as…
Viewing discoveries from 21 September 2003 through 29 August 2003.