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.
A Path Into Victoria Crater
What's inside Victoria Crater? Now that the dust has settled from the regional Martian dust storms that immobilized the rolling Martian rover s, the task ahead has become clear.…
The Colorful Clouds of Rho Ophiuchi
The many spectacular colors of the Rho Ophiuchi (oh'-fee-yu-kee) clouds highlight the many processes that occur there. The blue regions shine primarily by reflected light. Blue…
Lunation
Our Moon's appearance changes nightly. This time-lapse sequence shows what our Moon looks like during a lunation , a complete lunar cycle. As the Moon orbits the Earth , the half…
Kalamalka Lake Eclipse
Recorded on August 28th , this serene total lunar eclipse sequence looks southwest down Kalamalka Lake toward the lights of Coldstream , British Columbia. An exposure every 4…
Stars Forming in Serpens
Stars are forming in a dense molecular cloud a mere 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Serpens Cauda (The Serpent's Tail). At that estimated distance, this sharp,…
Dark Lunar Eclipse
The Moon passed close to the center of Earth's shadow on August 28th . Seen best by skywatchers in western North America, and the Pacific region, the resulting total lunar eclipse…
Gigantic Jets Over Oklahoma
Have you ever seen a gigantic jet? They are extremely rare but tremendously powerful. Gigantic jets are a newly discovered type of lightning discharge between some thunderstorms…
Could Hydrogen Peroxide Life Survive on Mars?
Is there life on Mars? Although no unambiguous evidence for indigenous life on Mars has ever been found, a more speculative question -- could some life forms survive on Mars --…
Huge Void Implicated in Distant Universe
What has created this huge empty volume in the universe? No one is yet sure, and even the extent of the estimated billion - light year void is being researched. The void is not a…
A Total Lunar Eclipse Over North Carolina
This coming Tuesday, our Moon will appear to disappear . A similar total lunar eclipse is seen above in a time lapse image captured in 2003 over North Carolina , USA . As the…
Just Passing Through
M33 is a big, beautiful spiral galaxy a mere 3 million light-years away, understandably a popular target for enthusiastic astro-imagers. Just as understandably, interfering…
Astronomer's Moon
Jupiter is an astronomer's planet -- its large size and contrasting global cloud belts and zones allow detailed studies with a range of earthbound telescopes . On the other hand,…
Southern Moonscape
The Moon's south pole is near the top of this sharp telescopic view looking across the southern lunar highlands . Recorded on August 3rd from Tecumseh , Oklahoma, planet Earth,…
Tentacles of the Tarantula Nebula
The largest, most violent star forming region known in the whole Local Group of galaxies lies in our neighboring galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Were the Tarantula Nebula…
A Red Dome Under the Big Dipper
Why would the dome of a telescopic observatory appear translucent red? As one of the telescopes of the Etscorn Observatory of New Mexico Tech waited to inspect small portions of…
Cluster Crash Illuminates Dark Matter Conundrum
Huge clusters of galaxies are surely colliding in Abell 520 but astrophysicists aren't sure why the dark matter is becoming separated from the normal matter. The dark matter in…
A Sonic Boom
Is this what a sonic boom looks like? When an airplane travels at a speed faster than sound, density waves of sound emitted by the plane cannot precede the plane, and so…
ISS Over Mont-Megantic Observatory
On August 1st, a time exposure created this surreal view that looks up into the early morning sky over southern Quebec. Only the light from a nearly Full Moon brightens the sky…
The Tail of a Wonderful Star
To seventeenth century astronomers, Omicron Ceti or Mira was known as a wonderful star, a star whose brightness could change dramatically in the course of about 11 months. Mira is…
Moonless Perseid Sky
Last weekend, dark, moonless night skies brought many sightings of Perseid meteors to skygazers all over planet Earth. Early Sunday morning astronomer John Chumack's camera…
Mysterious Streaks Over Turkey
What are they? Five streaks near the bottom of the above image taken near Ankara , Turkey on Sunday would be identified at first glance as meteors from the Perseids meteor shower…
A Spectacular Sky Over the Grand Tetons
Behold the breathtaking beauty of Earth and sky together. In the foreground is the Teton Mountain Range of Wyoming , USA . The Grand Tetons are a relatively isolated set of high…
The Trifid Nebula in Stars and Dust
Unspeakable beauty and unimaginable bedlam can be found together in the Trifid Nebula . Also known as M20, this photogenic nebula is visible with good binoculars towards the…
Raining Perseids
Tonight is a good night to see meteors. Comet dust will rain down on planet Earth, streaking through dark skies in the annual Perseid meteor shower . While enjoying the…
Viewing discoveries from 4 September 2007 through 12 August 2007.