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.
White Ridges on Mars
What created these white ridges on Mars? The images showing the white ridges, including some of the highest resolution images ever taken from Martian orbit, were recorded last…
Nova Over Iran
A bright new nova is being studied by astronomers. The officially dubbed Nova Scorpii 2007 has become so bright in recent days that it is now visible to the unaided eye.…
M16: Pillars of Creation
It has become one of the most famous images of modern times. This image , taken with the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, shows evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs) emerging from…
Stereo Eros
Get out your red/blue glasses and float next to asteroid 433 Eros , now over 220 million kilometers away! Orbiting the Sun once every 1.8 earth-years, asteroid Eros is a…
Polar Ring Galaxy NGC 2685
NGC 2685 is a confirmed polar ring galaxy - a rare type of galaxy with stars, gas and dust orbiting in rings perpendicular to the plane of a flat galactic disk. The bizarre…
Planetary Nebula NGC 2440
Planetary nebula NGC 2440 has an intriguing bow-tie shape in this stunning view from space. The nebula is composed of material cast off by a dying sun-like star as it enters its…
The Rosette Nebula
Would the Rosette Nebula by any other name look as sweet ? The bland New General Catalog designation of NGC 2237 doesn't appear to diminish the appearance of the this flowery…
Vela Supernova Remnant in Visible Light
The explosion is over but the consequences continue. About eleven thousand years ago a star in the constellation of Vela could be seen to explode , creating a strange point of…
Comet McNaught Over New Zealand
Comet McNaught is perhaps the most photogenic comet of our time. After making quite a show in the northern hemisphere in mid January, the comet moved south and developed a long…
Io: The Prometheus Plume
What's happening on Jupiter's moon Io? Two sulfurous eruptions are visible on Jupiter's volcanic moon Io in this color composite image from the robotic Galileo spacecraft that…
Stars of the Galactic Center
The center of our Milky Way Galaxy is hidden from the prying eyes of optical telescopes by clouds of obscuring dust and gas. But in this stunning vista , the Spitzer Space…
Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus and Arzachel
These three ancient, large impact craters lie on the north eastern shores of Mare Nubium, the lunar Sea of Clouds. Along the top of the stark mosaic (left to right) are the…
Galaxies Away
This stunning group of galaxies is far, far away - about 450 million light-years from planet Earth - cataloged as galaxy cluster Abell S0740. Dominated by the cluster's large…
Liquid Lakes on Saturn's Titan
Why would some regions on Titan reflect very little radar? The leading explanation is that these regions are lakes, possibly composed of liquid methane. The above image is a…
Sun Storm: A Coronal Mass Ejection
What's happening to our Sun? Another Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)! The Sun-orbiting SOHO spacecraft has imaged many erupting filaments lifting off the active solar surface and…
Comet Between Fireworks and Lightning
Sometimes the sky itself is the best show in town. On January 26, people from Perth , Australia gathered on a local beach to watch a sky light up with delights near and far.…
Shadow of a Martian Robot
What if you saw your shadow on Mars and it wasn't human ? Then you might be the Opportunity rover currently exploring Mars. Opportunity and sister robot Spirit have been probing…
Alborz Mountains in Moonlight
On January 25th, light from a first quarter Moon illuminated this dreamlike landscape looking across the rugged, snow-covered peaks of the Alborz Mountain Range in northern Iran.…
Flame Nebula Close-Up
Of course, the Flame Nebula is not on fire. Also known as NGC 2024 , the nebula's suggestive reddish color is due to the glow of hydrogen atoms at the edge of the giant Orion…
A Tail of Two Hemispheres
By January 19/20 Comet McNaught's magnificent dust tail stretched for about 150 million kilometers (1 AU), requiring images from both southern and northern hemispheres of planet…
Movie: Cassini Crosses Saturn's Ring Plane
What would the rings of Saturn look like if you passed right through the ring plane? To find out, NASA aimed cameras from the Cassini spacecraft right at Saturn's rings as the…
Thor's Helmet from CFHT
NGC 2359 is a striking emission nebula with an impressive popular name - Thor's Helmet Sure, its suggestive winged appearance might lead some to refer to it as the “ duck nebula”,…
Movie: A Green Flash Over Italy
How could the Sun turn green? Difficult to observe, the momentary green flash above the rising or setting sun has been documented as a phenomenon caused by the atmospheric bending…
Saturn's Hyperion: A Moon with Odd Craters
What lies at the bottom of Hyperion 's strange craters? Nobody knows. To help find out, the robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn swooped past the sponge-textured moon in…
Viewing discoveries from 20 February 2007 through 28 January 2007.