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.
HUDF Infrared: Dawn of the Galaxies
When did galaxies form? To help find out, the deepest near-infrared image of the sky ever has been taken of the same field as the optical-light Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) in…
Ice Moon Tethys from Saturn-Orbiting Cassini
What processes formed the unusual surface of Saturn's moon Tethys? To help find out, NASA sent the robotic Cassini spacecraft right past the enigmatic ice moon in 2005. Pictured…
The International Space Station Over the Horizon
This was home. Just over a week ago, the STS-129 crew of the Space Shuttle Atlantis undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) and returned to Earth. As the shuttle…
The Magnificent Tail of Comet McNaught
Comet McNaught, the Great Comet of 2007, was the brightest comet of the last 40 years. Its spectacular tail spread across the sky and was breathtaking to behold from dark…
Himalayan Skyscape
Capella , alpha star of the constellation Auriga , rises over Mt. Everest in this panoramic view of the top of the world at night . The scene was recorded in late November near…
The Double Cluster
A lovely starfield in the heroic northern constellation Perseus holds this famous pair of open or galactic star clusters, h and Chi Persei . Also cataloged as NGC 869 (right) and…
Polar Ring Galaxy NGC 660
NGC 660 lies near the center of this intriguing field of galaxies swimming within the boundaries of the constellation Pisces . Over 20 million light-years away, its peculiar…
Dust Sculptures in the Rosette Nebula
What creates the cosmic dust sculptures in the Rosette Nebula? Noted for the common beauty of its overall shape , parts of the Rosette Nebula , also known as NGC 2237 , show…
NGC 6992: Filaments of the Veil Nebula
Wisps like this are all that remain visible of a Milky Way star. About 7,500 years ago that star exploded in a supernova leaving the Veil Nebula , also known as the Cygnus Loop.…
Bright Sun and Crescent Earth from the Space Station
This was just one more breathtaking view from the International Space Station. The Sun, a crescent Earth, and the long arm of a solar panel were all visible outside a window when…
Ancient Layered Hills on Mars
Is this a picture of Mars or Earth? Oddly enough, it is a picture of Mars . What may appear to some as a terrestrial coastline is in fact a formation of ancient layered hills and…
Annapurna Star Trails
In myth, Atlas holds up the heavens. But in this moonlit mountainscape, peaks of the Himalayan Annapurna Range appear to prop up the sky as seen from Ghandruk, Nepal. From left to…
The Jets of NGC 1097
Enigmatic spiral galaxy NGC 1097 lies about 45 million light-years away in the southern constellation Fornax . The small companion galaxy, just below and left of center, that…
M78 Wide Field
Interstellar dust clouds and glowing nebulae abound in the fertile constellation of Orion . One of the brightest, M78 , is centered in this colorful, wide field view , covering an…
All-Sky Milky Way Panorama
If you could go far away from the Earth and look around the entire sky -- what would you see? Such was the goal of the All-Sky Milky Way Panorama 2.0 project of Axel Mellinger.…
Cassini Flyby Shows Enceladus Venting
What's happening on the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus? Enormous ice jets are erupting. Giant plumes of ice have been photographed in dramatic fashion by the robotic Cassini…
Crescent Earth from the Departing Rosetta Spacecraft
Goodbye Earth. Earlier this month, ESA 's interplanetary Rosetta spacecraft zoomed past the Earth on its way back across the Solar System. Pictured above , Earth showed a bright…
Light Echoes from V838 Mon
What caused this outburst of V838 Mon? For reasons unknown , star V838 Mon 's outer surface suddenly greatly expanded with the result that it became the brightest star in the…
NGC 253: Dusty Island Universe
Shiny NGC 253 Galaxy, is one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible, and also one of the dustiest. Some call it the Silver Dollar Galaxy for its appearance in small telescopes,…
Meteor between the Clouds
This bright meteor streaked through dark night skies over Sutherland , South Africa on November 15. Potentially part of the annual Leonid meteor shower, its sudden, brilliant…
Leonid over Mono Lake
Eerie spires of rock rise from shore of Mono Lake in the foreground of this early morning skyscape. The salty, mineral-laden lake is located in California's eastern Sierra Nevada…
Water Discovered in Moon Shadow
Why is there water on the Moon? Last month, the LCROSS mission crashed a large impactor into a permanently shadowed crater near the Moon's South Pole. A plume of dust rose that…
Dawn Before Nova
Will this dawn bring another nova? Such dilemmas might be pondered one day by future humans living on a planet orbiting a cataclysmic variable binary star system. Cataclysmic…
M83's Center from Refurbished Hubble
What's happening at the center of spiral galaxy M83? Just about everything, from the looks of it. M83 is one of the closest spiral galaxies to our own Milky Way Galaxy and from a…
Viewing discoveries from 9 December 2009 through 16 November 2009.