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.
Exploring the Ring
A familiar sight for northern hemisphere astronomers, the Ring Nebula (M57) is some 2,000 light-years away in the musical constellation Lyra . The central ring is about one…
MACSJ0025: Two Giant Galaxy Clusters Collide
What happens when two of the largest objects in the universe collide? No one was quite sure, but the answer is giving clues to the nature of mysterious dark matter . In the case…
W5: Pillars of Star Creation
How do stars form? A study of star forming region W5 by the sun-orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope provides clear clues by recording that massive stars near the center of empty…
SN 1006: A Supernova Ribbon from Hubble
What created this unusual space ribbon? Most assuredly, one of the most violent explosions ever witnessed by ancient humans. Back in the year 1006 AD, light reached Earth from a…
The Heart and Soul Nebulas
Is the heart and soul of our Galaxy located in Cassiopeia ? Possibly not, but that is where two bright emission nebulas nicknamed Heart and Soul can be found. The Heart Nebula ,…
M33: Triangulum Galaxy
The small, northern constellation Triangulum harbors this magnificent face-on spiral galaxy, M33. Its popular names include the Pinwheel Galaxy or just the Triangulum Galaxy . M33…
Planets over Perth
A bright trio of terrestrial planets was joined by a young Moon on September 1st, in planet Earth's early evening skies. In this view of the celestial gathering from Perth ,…
Mountain Top Meteors
A mountain top above the clouds and light-polluted cities was a good place to go to watch this August's Perseid meteor shower. In fact, this composite picture from one of the…
The Anthe Arc around Saturn
What created this unusual partial ring around Saturn? Discovered last year, the arc was captured in clear detail only two months ago by the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft .…
M110: Satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy
Our Milky Way Galaxy is not alone. It is part of a gathering of about 25 galaxies known as the Local Group . Members include the Great Andromeda Galaxy (M31), M32 , M33 , the…
Rosetta Spacecraft Passes Asteroid Steins
What's that diamond in the sky ? Cruising though space, sometimes you'll come across an unusual object. Such was the case on Friday for ESA 's Rosetta spacecraft on its way to…
Searching for Meteorites in Antarctica
Where is the best place on Earth to find meteorites ? Although meteors fall all over the world, they usually just sink to the bottom of an ocean , are buried by shifting terrain,…
A Flock of Stars
Only a few stars can be found within ten light-years of our lonely Sun, situated near an outer spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy . But if the Sun were found within one of our…
Milky Way Road Trip
In search of planets and the summer Milky Way , astronomer Tunç Tezel took an evening road trip . Last Saturday, after driving the winding road up Uludag , a mountain near Bursa,…
Spokes in the Helix Nebula
At first glance, the Helix Nebula ( aka NGC 7293 ), looks simple and round. But this well-studied example of a planetary nebula , produced near the end of the life of a sun-like…
31 Million Miles from Planet Earth
On July 4th, 2005, the Deep Impact spacecraft directed a probe to impact the nucleus of Comet Tempel 1 . Still cruising through the solar system, earlier this year the robotic…
NGC 1316: After Galaxies Collide
Astronomers turn detectives when trying to figure out the cause of startling sights like NGC 1316 . Their investigation indicates that NGC 1316 is an enormous elliptical galaxy…
CG4: A Ruptured Cometary Globule
Can a gas cloud grab a galaxy? It's not even close. The “claw” of this odd looking “creature” in the above photo is a gas cloud known as a cometary globule . This globule,…
Eclipse over the Great Wall
Contrary to the famous myth , you can't see the Great Wall of China from the Moon ... even during a total solar eclipse . But on August 1 you could see the Moon eclipsing the Sun…
The View from Everest
What would it be like to stand atop the tallest mountain on Earth? To see a full panoramic vista from there, scroll right. Visible are snow peaked mountains near and far,…
Generations of Stars in W5
Giant star forming region W5 is over 200 light-years across and about 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia . W5's sculpted clouds of cold gas and dust seem to…
Fermi's First Light
Launched on June 11 to explore the universe at extreme energies, the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope has been officially renamed the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope , in…
IC 5146: The Cocoon Nebula
Inside the Cocoon Nebula is a newly developing cluster of stars. Cataloged as IC 5146 , the beautiful nebula is nearly 15 light-years wide, located some 4,000 light years away…
47 Tuc: A Great Globular Cluster of Stars
Stars come in bunches. Of the over 200 globular star clusters that orbit the center of our Milky Way Galaxy , 47 Tucanae is the second brightest globular cluster (behind Omega…
Viewing discoveries from 18 September 2008 through 26 August 2008.