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.
Clouds and Stars over Cotopaxi Volcano in Ecuador
What's happening above the Cotopaxi volcano in Ecuador? Quite a bit, from the looks of the above one-night, time-lapse movie, taken earlier this month. The majestic volcano is…
Looking Back Across Mars
It's been a long trip for the Martian rover Opportunity. Last week Opportunity surpassed Viking 1 as the longest running mission on Mars, now extending well over six years.…
Rho Ophiuchi Wide Field
The clouds surrounding the star system Rho Ophiuchi compose one of the closest star forming regions. Rho Ophiuchi itself is a binary star system visible in the light-colored…
Station and Shuttle Transit the Sun
That's no sunspot. On the upper right of the above image of the Sun, the dark patches are actually the International Space Station (ISS) and the Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission…
Dark Filament of the Sun
Suspended by magnetic fields above a solar active region this dark filament stretches over 40 earth-diameters . The ominous structure appears to be frozen in time near the Sun's…
Calm, Crescent Moon, and Venus
Last weekend, the Moon and Venus formed a beautiful close pair in the west after sunset , a scene enjoyed by skygazers all over the world. In this lovely view of the conjunction…
M87: Elliptical Galaxy with Jet
In spiral galaxies , majestic winding arms of young stars, gas, and dust rotate in a flat disk around a bulging galactic nucleus. But elliptical galaxies seem to be simpler.…
Milky Way Over Ancient Ghost Panel
Long before Stonehenge was built, well before the Dead Sea Scrolls were written, ancient artists painted life-sized figures on canyon walls in Utah , USA -- but why? Nobody is…
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…
Panorama of the Whale Galaxy
The see the full length of this blue whale, scroll right. NGC 4631 is a big beautiful spiral galaxy seen edge-on at only about 30 million light-years away. This galaxy's slightly…
Crescent Venus and Moon
There's something behind these clouds. Those faint graceful arcs, upon inspection, are actually far, far in the distance. They are the Earth's Moon and the planet Venus . Both the…
The Elusive Jellyfish Nebula
Normally faint and elusive, the Jellyfish Nebula is caught in this alluring, false-color , telescopic view. Flanked by two bright stars, Mu and Eta Geminorum, at the foot of a…
Iguaçu Starry Night
The arc of the southern Milky Way shone brightly on this starry night. Captured on May 4, in the foreground of this gorgeous skyview is the rainforest near the spectacular Iguaçu…
The Magnificent Horsehead Nebula
Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud by chance has assumed this recognizable shape. Fittingly named the Horsehead Nebula , it is some…
M72: A Globular Cluster of Stars
Globular clusters once ruled the Milky Way . Back in the old days , back when our Galaxy first formed, perhaps thousands of globular clusters roamed our Galaxy . Today, there are…
Herschel Crater on Mimas of Saturn
Why is this giant crater on Mimas oddly colored? Mimas , one of the smaller round moons of Saturn, sports Herschel crater , one of the larger impact craters in the entire Solar…
Large Eruptive Prominence Movie from SDO
Sometimes part of the Sun can just explode into space. These explosions might occur as powerful solar flares, coronal mass ejections, or comparatively tame eruptive solar…
Halo of the Cat's Eye
The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae in the sky . Its haunting symmetries are seen in the very central region of this stunning false-color…
Atlantis Lift Off
Atlantis has lifted off, but not from launch pad 39A. Instead, this sharp, wide-angle photo taken on April 13, shows the space shuttle orbiter lifted off the floor of Kennedy…
The Antennae
Some 60 million light-years away in the southerly constellation Corvus , two large galaxies collided . But the stars in the two galaxies cataloged as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 don't…
Northern and Southern Owls
Captured in colorful telescopic portraits , two cosmic owls glare back toward planet Earth in this intriguing comparison of planetary nebulae . On the left is M97 in the…
The Faces of Mars
Enthusiastic astro-artists ranging from expert to beginner, the youngest age 10, all contributed their work to this entertaining panel featuring different faces of Mars . Their…
A Hall of Mountain Fogbows
If you tried to enter this hall of fog, you would find it dissipates around you. The hall is actually an optical illusion created by sunlight backscattering off of a cloud passing…
Spiral Galaxy NGC 3190 Almost Sideways
Some spiral galaxies are seen almost sideways. NGC 3190, one such galaxy, is the largest member of the Hickson 44 Group , one of the nearer groups of galaxies to our own Local…
Viewing discoveries from 26 May 2010 through 3 May 2010.