Browse NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day archive by date and media: Archive Discoveries
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A Meteor Moment
Intensely bright, this fireball meteor flashed through Tuesday's cold, clear, early morning skies over the Karkas Mountains in central Iran, near the peak of the annual Geminid…
Geminids over Kitt Peak
Two large telescope domes stand in the foreground of this night sky view from Kitt Peak National Observatory , near Tucson, Arizona, USA. The dramatic scene was recorded early…
A Huge Solar Filament Erupts
Click the arrow and watch an unusually long filament explode out from the Sun. The filament had been seen hovering over the Sun's surface for over a week before it erupted earlier…
Launch of a Delta IV Heavy
It is the tallest rocket in active use. The Delta IV Heavy is the largest of the Delta series , packing the punch of three rocket boosters instead of the usual one. The resulting…
Contemplating the Sky
Have you contemplated your sky recently? Tonight will be a good one for midnight meditators at many northerly locations as meteors from the Geminids meteor shower will frequently…
Leonids Above Torre de la Guaita
In 1999, Leonids Meteor Shower came to an impressive crescendo. Observers in Europe saw a sharp peak in the number of meteors visible around 0210 UTC during the early morning…
Meteor in the Desert Sky
Created as planet Earth sweeps through dusty debris from mysterious, asteroid-like, 3200 Phaethon , the annual Geminid Meteor Shower should be the best meteor shower of the year.…
A Twilight Occultation
A thin, one day old crescent Moon hugged the western horizon after sunset on Monday, December 6. The Moon also occulted or passed in front of Mars . But only some well-placed…
M81 and Arp's Loop
One of the brightest galaxies in planet Earth's sky and similar in size to the Milky Way , big, beautiful spiral M81 lies 11.8 million light-years away in the northern…
Intrepid Crater on Mars
The robotic rover Opportunity has chanced across another small crater on Mars. Pictured above is Intrepid Crater, a 20-meter across impact basin slightly larger than Nereus Crater…
Too Close to a Black Hole
What would you see if you went right up to a black hole? Above is a computer generated image highlighting how strange things would look. The black hole has such strong gravity…
Mono Lake: Home to the Strange Microbe GFAJ-1
How strange could alien life be? An indication that the fundamental elements that compose most terrestrial life forms might differ out in the universe was found in unusual Mono…
Moonrise Through Mauna Kea's Shadow
How can the Moon rise through a mountain? It cannot -- what was photographed here is a moonrise through the shadow of a large volcano . The volcano is Mauna Kea , Hawai'i , USA ,…
Sunset at the Spiral Jetty
In dwindling twilight at an August day's end, these broad dark bands appeared in the sky for a moment, seen from Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty on the eastern shore of Utah's…
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…
Hartley 2 Star Cluster Tour
Early in November, small but active Comet Hartley 2 (103/P Hartley) became the fifth comet imaged close-up by a spacecraft from planet Earth . Continuing its own tour of the solar…
Martian Moon Phobos from Mars Express
Why is Phobos so dark? Phobos , the largest and innermost of two Martian moons, is the darkest moon in the entire Solar System . Its unusual orbit and color indicate that it may…
A Supercell Thunderstorm Cloud Over Montana
Is that a spaceship or a cloud? Although it may seem like an alien mothership , it's actually a impressive thunderstorm cloud called a supercell . Such colossal storm systems…
Dark Belt Reappearing on Jupiter
Why are planet-circling clouds disappearing and reappearing on Jupiter? Although the ultimate cause remains unknown, planetary meteorologists are beginning to better understand…
Anticrepuscular Rays Over Colorado
What's happening over the horizon? Although the scene may appear somehow supernatural , nothing more unusual is occurring than a setting Sun and some well placed clouds. Pictured…
Star Streams of NGC 4216
Some 40 million light-years distant, edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 4216 is nearly 100,000 light-years across, about the size of our own Milky Way . Found in the dense Virgo Galaxy…
Flame Nebula Close-Up
Of course, the Flame Nebula is not on fire. Also known as NGC 2024 , the nebula's suggestive reddish color is due to the glow of hydrogen atoms at the edge of the giant Orion…
Stardust in Aries
This composition in stardust covers almost 2 degrees on the sky, close to the border of the zodiacal constellation Aries and the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. At the lower right…
Flowing Auroras Over Norway
Have you ever seen an aurora? Auroras are occurring again with increasing frequency. With the Sun being unusually dormant over the past three years, the amount of Sun-induced…
Viewing discoveries from 17 December 2010 through 24 November 2010.