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.
The Dumbbells
These two nebulae are cataloged as M27 (left) and M76, popularly known as The Dumbbell and the Little Dumbbell . Not intended to indicate substandard mental prowess, their popular…
Orion Dawn Over Mount Nemrut
What's that in front of Orion? Forty kilometers north of Kahta , Turkey , lies Mount Nemrut , a mountain adorned with the fragments of vast statues built over 2000 years ago. The…
A Sun Pillar Over North Carolina
Have you ever seen a sun pillar ? When the air is cold and the Sun is rising or setting , falling ice crystals can reflect sunlight and create an unusual column of light. Ice…
Zodiacal Light Over New Mexico
An unusual triangle of light is visible this time of year just before dawn. Once considered a false dawn , this triangle of light is actually Zodiacal Light , light reflected from…
The 60-inch Reflector
On the night of December 13, 1908, 100 years ago today, the 60-inch diameter reflecting telescope of Mount Wilson Observatory was first tested on the stars. It became the first…
Lick Observatory Moonrise
As viewed from a well chosen location at sunset , October's gorgeous Full Moon rose behind Mount Hamilton, east of San Jose, California. Captured in this lovely telescopic view,…
At the Center of the Milky Way
At the center of our Milky Way Galaxy lies a supermassive black hole . Once a controversial claim, this conclusion is now solidly based on 16 years of observations that map the…
Portrait of NGC 281
Look through the cosmic cloud cataloged as NGC 281 and it's almost easy to miss stars of open cluster IC 1590 . But, formed within the nebula, that cluster's young, massive stars…
M45: The Pleiades Star Cluster
Perhaps the most famous star cluster on the sky, the Pleiades can be seen without binoculars from even the depths of a light-polluted city . Also known as the Seven Sisters and…
The Dark Doodad Nebula
What is that strange dark ribbon on the sky? When observing the great globular cluster NGC 4372, observers frequently take note of a strange dark streak nearly three degrees in…
A Halo Around the Moon
Have you ever seen a halo around the Moon? This fairly common sight occurs when high thin clouds containing millions of tiny ice crystals cover much of the sky. Each ice crystal…
Lunar Diamond
Cameras around the globe pointed skyward this week to capture the spectacular conjunction of a crescent Moon and bright planets Venus and Jupiter. But astronomer-artist Deirdre…
Smile in the Sky
At sunset, Monday's western sky showed off stunning colors and dramatic clouds reflected in Brisbane Water on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia. It also featured the…
Venus in the Moon
On December 1, bright planets Venus and Jupiter gathered near the young crescent Moon, an inspiring celestial scene in early evening skies around the world . But from some…
A Happy Sky Over Los Angeles
Sunday, the sky seemed to smile over much of planet Earth. Visible the world over was an unusual superposition of our Moon and the planets Venus and Jupiter. Pictures taken at the…
International Space Station: Find the Astronaut
Where's the astronaut? Somewhere in this impressive array of International Space Station (ISS) hardware, astronaut Steve Bowen can be found upgrading and cleaning key parts of…
Massive Stars Resolved in the Carina Nebula
How massive can stars be? Big, hefty stars live short violent lives that can profoundly affect their environments. Isolating a massive star can be problematic, however, since what…
An Apollo 15 Panorama: Astronaut Exploring
What would it be like to explore the Moon? NASA's Apollo missions gave humans just this chance in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In particular, the Apollo 15 mission was…
Chilean Skyscape
Night skies over Chilean mountain top observatories can be dark and clear, with glorious cosmic vistas . In this recent example, the plane of our Milky Way galaxy stretches…
Probably a Planet for Beta Pic
A mere 50 light-years away, young star Beta Pictoris became one of the most important stars in the sky in the early 1980s. Satellite and ground-based telescopic observations…
Galaxies in the River
Large galaxies grow by eating small ones. Even our own galaxy practices galactic cannibalism , absorbing small galaxies that get too close and are captured by the Milky Way's…
The Horsehead Nebula in Orion
One of the most identifiable nebulae in the sky, the Horsehead Nebula in Orion , is part of a large, dark, molecular cloud . Also known as Barnard 33, the unusual shape was first…
Radar Indicates Buried Glaciers on Mars
What created this unusual terrain on Mars? The floors of several mid-latitude craters in Hellas Basin on Mars appear unusually grooved, flat, and shallow. New radar images from…
In the Vicinity of the Cone Nebula
Strange shapes and textures can be found in neighborhood of the Cone Nebula . The unusual shapes originate from fine interstellar dust reacting in complex ways with the energetic…
Viewing discoveries from 17 December 2008 through 23 November 2008.