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 Meteor of 1860
Frederic Church (1826-1900), American landscape painter of the Hudson River School, painted what he saw in nature. And on July 20th, 1860, he saw a spectacular string of fireball…
The Crown of the Sun
During a total solar eclipse, the Sun's extensive outer atmosphere, or corona, is an inspirational sight. Subtle shades and shimmering features that engage the eye span a…
Lightning Over Athens
Have you ever watched a lightning storm in awe? Join the crowd. Oddly, nobody knows exactly how lightning is produced. What is known is that charges slowly separate in some clouds…
Dark River, Wide Field
A Dark River of dust seems to run from our Galactic Center, then pool into a starfield containing photogenic sky wonders. Scrolling right will reveal many of these objects…
The Antennae Galaxies in Collision
Two galaxies are squaring off in Corvus and here are the latest pictures . But when two galaxies collide , the stars that compose them usually do not. That's because galaxies are…
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…
Shaping NGC 6188
Dark shapes with bright edges winging their way through dusty NGC 6188 are tens of light-years long. The emission nebula is found near the edge of an otherwise dark large…
Andes Sunset Eclipse
On July 11 , after a long trek eastward across the southern Pacific Ocean, the Moon's shadow reached landfall in South America. In a total solar eclipse close to sunset ,…
Easter Island Eclipse
Makemake , a god in Easter Island mythology, may have smiled for a moment as clouds parted long enough to reveal this glimpse of July 11's total solar eclipse to skygazers. In the…
Mosaic: Welcome to Planet Earth
Welcome to Planet Earth , the third planet from a star named the Sun . The Earth is shaped like a sphere and composed mostly of rock . Over 70 percent of the Earth's surface is…
Moons Beyond the Rings of Saturn
What's happened to that moon of Saturn? Nothing -- Saturn's moon Rhea is just partly hidden behind Saturn's rings. In April, the robotic Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn…
Warped Sky: Star Trails Panorama
What's happened to the sky? A time warp, of sorts, and a digital space warp too. The time warp occurs because this image captured in a single frame a four hour exposure of the…
Ecliptic New Zealand
Four bright celestial beacons and a faint triangle of light follow the plane of the ecliptic as it arcs high through this southern hemisphere night skyscape. Seen on a July winter…
Microwave Milky Way
Seen from our edge-on perspective , the Milky Way Galaxy sprawls across the middle of this false-color, all sky view . The expansive microwave map is based on 1 year's worth of…
Dim World, Dark Nebula
Dim, distant, dwarf planet Pluto can be hard to spot, especially in recent months as it wanders through the crowded starfields of Sagittarius and the central Milky Way. But…
Concept Plane: Supersonic Green Machine
What will passenger airplanes be like in the future? To help brain storm desirable and workable attributes, NASA sponsors design competitions . Shown here is an artist's depiction…
HCG 87: A Small Group of Galaxies
Sometimes galaxies form groups. For example, our own Milky Way Galaxy is part of the Local Group of Galaxies . Small, compact groups, like Hickson Compact Group 87 ( HCG 87 )…
The Milky Way Over Pulpit Rock
Can a picture of the sky be relaxing? A candidate for such a picture might be this image taken only last month from Cape Schank , Victoria , Australia . The frame is highlighted…
Companion of a Young, Sun-like Star Confirmed
The first direct image of an extrasolar planet orbiting a star similar to our Sun has been confirmed. Located just 500 light-years away toward the constellation Scorpius , the…
A Giant 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 on a String
Galaxies NGC 5216 (top) and NGC 5218 really do look like they are connected by a string. Of course, that string is a cosmic trail of gas, dust, and stars about 22,000 light-years…
Above Aurora Australis
On May 29, looking southward from a vantage point about 350 kilometers above the southern Indian Ocean, astronauts onboard the International Space Station watched this enormous,…
Fast Gas Bullet from Cosmic Blast N49
What is that strange blue blob on the far right? No one is sure, but it might be a speeding remnant of a powerful supernova that was unexpectedly lopsided. Scattered debris from…
Trees, Sky, Galactic Eye
Is beauty in the eye of this beholder? Earlier this month, over Runion Island in the Indian Ocean , a playful photographer with an eye for the sky took eight images and composed…
Viewing discoveries from 22 July 2010 through 29 June 2010.