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.
Henize 206: Cosmic Generations
Peering into a dusty nebula in nearby galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud, infrared cameras on board the Spitzer Space Telescope recorded this detailed view of stellar nursery…
Humphrey Rock Indicates Ancient Martian Water
How prevalent was water on Mars? Results from the Spirit rover now indicate that Gusev crater likely had a wet past, a result that comes shortly after Spirit's twin rover…
The Hubble Ultra Deep Field
What did the first galaxies look like? To help answer this question, the Hubble Space Telescope has just finished taking the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), the deepest image of…
Moon and Venus over Corona Del Mar Beach
The crescent Moon passed nearly in front of Venus two weeks ago. The close conjunction of the night sky 's two brightest objects created a striking pose for many viewing the…
An Anomalous SETI Signal
No one knows for sure what caused this signal . There is a slight possibility that it just might originate from an extraterrestrial intelligence . The bright colors on the blue…
N49's Cosmic Blast
Scattered debris from a cosmic supernova explosion lights up the sky in this gorgeous composited image based on data from the Hubble Space Telescope. Cataloged as N49, these…
V838 Mon: Echoes from the Edge
Variable star V838 Monocerotis lies near the edge of our Milky Way Galaxy , about 20,000 light-years from the Sun. Still, ever since a sudden outburst was detected in January…
Cold Mountain Sky
This lovely celestial view is surely a familiar one to winter skygazers in the northern hemisphere. Lights silhouetting the trees are from nearby towns Morganton and Rutherford…
Opportunity Rover Indicates Ancient Mars Was Wet
Was Mars ever wet enough to support life? To help answer this question, NASA launched two rover missions to the red planet and landed them in regions that satellite images…
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…
Cassini Closes in on Saturn
Are they gone? They were not originally predicted to even be there. The mystery revolves around strange shadow-like spokes that appeared on Saturn's large B-ring , the large…
Julius Caesar and Leap Days
Today, February 29th, is a leap day - a relatively rare occurrence. In 46 BC, Julius Caesar , pictured above in a self-decreed minted coin, created a calendar system that added…
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…
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…
Viewing discoveries from 11 March 2004 through 17 February 2004.