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.
STARDUST Flyby of Comet Wild 2
Flying past a comet nucleus is dangerous. On January 2, the robot spacecraft STARDUST became one of the first to plow through the surrounding cloud of dust and grit to photograph…
A Close-Up of Martian Soil
Make your background the closest image of Mars yet. The Spirit Rover currently rolling on Mars has taken the highest resolution image to date of another planet. The above black…
Saturn: Lord of the Rings
Born in 1564, Galileo used a telescope to explore the Solar System. In 1610, he became the first to be amazed by Saturn's rings, After nearly 400 years, Saturn's magnificent rings…
Martian Surface in Perspective
Spirit moved across Mars yesterday as the rover successfully maneuvered down off its lander, driving its six wheels onto the floor of Gusev crater. As planned, the robotic…
An Orion Deep Field
Adrift 1,500 light-years away in one of the night sky's most recognizable constellations , the glowing Orion Nebula and the dark Horsehead Nebula are contrasting cosmic vistas.…
A Mars Panorama from the Spirit Rover
If you could stand on Mars -- what would you see? Scrolling right will reveal a full color 360-degree panoramic view from NASA's Spirit Rover that landed on Mars just 10 days ago.…
An Apollo 15 Panorama
The Apollo 15 mission to Earth's Moon was dedicated to better understanding the surface of the moon by exploring mountains, valleys, maria, and highlands . Astronauts David Scott…
A Hole Punch Cloud Over Alabama
What could create a huge hole in the clouds? Such a hole, likely hundreds of meters across, was photographed last month from a driveway near Mobile, Alabama , USA . Very unusual…
NGC 2440: Cocoon of a New White Dwarf
Like a butterfly , a white dwarf star begins its life by casting off a cocoon that enclosed its former self. In this analogy, however, the Sun would be a caterpillar and the…
Two Worlds, One Sun
Two Worlds, One Sun , is the legend emblazoned on the Spirit rover's camera calibration target. Resting on the rover's rear deck , it also doubles as a sundial , allowing students…
Sol 5 Postcard from Mars
A martian Sol - the average martian solar day - is about 39 minutes longer than Earth's familiar 24 hour day. Operating on martian time , the Spirit rover recently sent back this…
The Hills of Mars
Distant hills rise above a rocky, windswept plain in this sharp stereo scene from the Spirit rover on Mars . When viewed with red/blue glasses, the picture combines left and right…
Red Mars from Spirit
Rocks are strewn across the broad, flat Gusev crater floor in this sharp color picture from NASA's Spirit rover . Recorded by the rover's panoramic camera , the picture is part of…
Spirit's 3D View Toward Sleepy Hollow
Working late, tired mission members nicknamed the smooth-looking depression to the left of center in this image from the martian surface, Sleepy Hollow . The picture is a portion…
Spirit Pan from Gusev Crater
After a seven month voyage of nearly 500 million kilometers through interplanetary space, NASA's Spirit Rover has reached the surface of Mars. Scroll right and see a mosaic…
Spirit Rover Bounces Down on Mars
After a seven month voyage through interplanetary space, NASA's Spirit Rover has reached the surface of the Red Planet and returned the first images from its landing site in Gusev…
Comet Wild 2's Nucleus from Stardust
What does a comet nucleus look like? Yesterday the robot spacecraft Stardust answered this question by returning the most detailed images yet of the center of a comet. The icy…
An Apollo 12 Panorama
The Apollo 12 mission was the second ever to land humans on the Moon. The mission was dedicated to studying the Moon , developing techniques, and developing instruments that could…
Structure in N63A
Shells and arcs abound in this false-color, multiwavelength view of supernova remnant N63A , the debris of a massive stellar explosion. The x-ray emission (blue), is from gas…
A Year of Resolving Cosmology
This year, humanity learned that the universe is 13.7 billion years old . Before this year, the universe's age was thought to be about 13 billion years, but really only…
A Dust Devil Crater on Mars
What caused the streaks in this Martian crater? Since the above image shows streaks occurring both inside and outside the crater, they were surely created after the crater-causing…
The Witch Head Nebula
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble -- maybe Macbeth should have consulted the Witch Head Nebula. This suggestively shaped reflection nebula is…
Trifid Pillars & Jets
Dust pillars are like interstellar mountains . They survive because they are more dense than their surroundings, but they are being slowly eroded away by a hostile environment.…
The Pleiades Star Cluster
Perhaps 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…
Viewing discoveries from 19 January 2004 through 27 December 2003.