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.
Rumors of a Strange Universe
Only a few short years ago , when the APOD editors were in graduate school, the pervasive, cosmic Dark Energy was not even seriously discussed. Of course, it now appears that this…
Galaxy Cluster in the Early Universe
Long before medieval alchemists dreamed of transmuting base metals to gold , stellar furnaces in this massive cluster of galaxies - cataloged as RDCS 1252.9-2927 - had transformed…
White Boat Rock on Mars
What caused this rock to have an unusual shape? Earlier this month the robot Spirit rover on Mars stopped to examine a rock dubbed “white boat”, named for its unusually light…
X-Rays Indicate Star Ripped Up by Black Hole
What could rip a star apart? A black hole . Giant black holes in just the right mass range would pull on the front of a closely passing star much more strongly than on the back.…
Heaven on Earth
If sometimes it appears that the entire Milky Way Galaxy is raining down on your head, do not despair. It happens twice a day. As the Sun rises in the East, wonders of the night…
The M7 Open Star Cluster in Scorpius
M7 is one of the most prominent open clusters of stars on the sky. The cluster, dominated by bright blue stars , can be seen with the naked eye in a dark sky in the tail of the…
The Spiral Arms of NGC 4622
While stirring a morning cup of coffee and thinking cosmic thoughts many astronomers would glance at this Hubble Space Telescope image of spiral galaxy NGC 4622 and assume that…
SN1987A's Cosmic Pearls
In February 1987, light from the brightest stellar explosion seen in modern times reached Earth -- supernova SN1987A . This Hubble Space Telescope image from the sharp Advanced…
McNeil's Nebula
It was a clear, cold western Kentucky night on January 23rd as seasoned amateur astronomer Jay McNeil tried out his recently acquired 3-inch refracting telescope by imaging the…
Anvil Cloud Over Sicily
The cloud poses no danger to the building. Appearing to float above a remote monastery in Sicily , Italy , the anvil cloud 's shape shows several classic cloud features. The cloud…
Galaxy Cluster Lenses Farthest Known Galaxy
Gravity can bend light, allowing whole clusters of galaxies to act as huge telescopes. Almost all of the bright objects in this just- released Hubble Space Telescope image are…
A Patch of Spherules on Mars
Some patches of Mars are full of mysterious tiny spherules . The microscopic imager on board the Opportunity rover on Mars recorded, last week, the above image showing over a…
A Spherule from the Earth's Moon
How did this spherule come to be on the Moon? When a meteorite strikes the Moon , the energy of the impact melts some of the splattering rock , a fraction of which might cool into…
Solar System Portrait
On another Valentine's Day (February 14, 1990), cruising four billion miles from the Sun, the Voyager 1 spacecraft looked back to make this first ever family portrait of our Solar…
NGC 613: Spiral of Dust and Stars
When morning twilight came to the Paranal Observatory in Chile, astronomers Mark Neeser and Peter Barthel interrupted their search for faint quasars , billions of light-years…
Supernova Survivor
Beginning with a full view of beautiful spiral galaxy M81 , follow the insets (left, bottom, then right) to zoom in on a real survivor. Seen at the center of the final field on…
M64: The Sleeping Beauty Galaxy
The Sleeping Beauty galaxy may appear peaceful at first sight but it is actually tossing and turning. In an unexpected twist, recent observations have shown that the gas in the…
Unusual Spherules on Mars
What are those unusual spherules on Mars? The Mars Opportunity rover has now photographed several unusual nodules on Mars that have a nearly spherical shape. Many times these…
Announcing Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR)
A newly discovered comet may outshine most stars in the sky by May. Designated Comet C/2002 T7 (LINEAR) , the comet was discovered in 2002 October by project LINEAR . Many reports…
In the Center of the Omega Nebula
In the depths of the dark clouds of dust and molecular gas known as the Omega Nebula , stars continue to form. The above image from the Hubble Space Telescope 's Advanced Camera…
NGC 6369: The Little Ghost Nebula
This pretty planetary nebula, cataloged as NGC 6369 , was discovered by 18th century astronomer William Herschel as he used a telescope to explore the medicinal constellation…
Magnified Mars
At first glance, this sharp, color close-up gives the strong impression of pebbles strewn over a sandy beach. But the picture is one of the first microscopic images of another…
NGC 1569: Starburst in a Small Galaxy
Grand spiral galaxies often seem to get all the glory, flaunting their young, bright, blue star clusters in beautiful, symmetric spiral arms. But small, irregular galaxies form…
Opportunity's Horizon
Remarkably, the Opportunity Mars rover lies in a small martian impact crater about 3 meters deep and 22 meters wide. For 360 degrees, Opportunity's horizon stretches to the right…
Viewing discoveries from 27 February 2004 through 4 February 2004.