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.
Saturn Storm Panoramas
These tantalizing panoramas follow a remarkable giant storm encircling the northern hemisphere of ringed planet Saturn . Still active, the roiling storm clouds were captured in…
Arp 78: Peculiar Galaxy in Aries
Peculiar spiral galaxy Arp 78 is found within the boundaries of the head strong constellation Aries , some 100 million light-years beyond the stars and nebulae of our Milky Way…
Sunrise at Tycho
Tycho crater's central peak complex casts a long, dark shadow near local sunrise in this spectacular lunarscape . The dramatic oblique view was recorded on June 10 by the Lunar…
A Triangular Shadow of a Large Volcano
Why does the shadow of this volcano look like a triangle? The Mount Teide volcano itself does not have the strictly pyramidal shape that its geometric shadow might suggest. The…
Southern Ocean Sky
Clouds and sky both show illuminating changes during this time lapse video from the south of Australia. In the foreground are scenes visible over a rocky coastline toward the…
Alpha Centauri: The Closest Star System
The closest star system to the Sun is the Alpha Centauri system . Of the three stars in the system, the dimmest -- called Proxima Centauri -- is actually the nearest star . The…
Moon and Venus at Dawn
Brilliant Venus and a thin crescent Moon stood together above the eastern horizon just before sunrise on June 30. The lovely celestial pairing is captured in this colorful…
VAR!
In the 1920s, examining photographic plates from the Mt. Wilson Observatory's 100 inch telescope, Edwin Hubble determined the distance to the Andromeda Nebula , decisively…
Star Factory Messier 17
Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, the star factory known as Messier 17 lies some 5,500 light-years away in the nebula-rich constellation Sagittarius . At that distance,…
Abell 2744: Pandora's Cluster of Galaxies
Why is this cluster of galaxies so jumbled? Far from a smooth distribution, Abell 2744 not only has knots of galaxies, but the X-ray emitting hot gas (colored red) in the cluster…
Stardust and Betelgeuse
An expansive nebula of dust is seen to surround red supergiant star Betegeuse in this remarkable high resolution composite, an infrared VLT image from the European Southern…
Stars and Dust Across Corona Australis
Cosmic dust clouds sprawl across a rich field of stars in this sweeping telescopic vista near the northern boundary of Corona Australis , the Southern Crown. Probably less than…
NGC 3132: The Eight Burst Nebula
It's the dim star, not the bright one, near the center of NGC 3132 that created this odd but beautiful planetary nebula . Nicknamed the Eight-Burst Nebula and the Southern Ring…
Eclipse over the Acropolis
The total phase of the June 15 lunar eclipse lasted an impressive 100 minutes. Its entire duration is covered in this composite of a regular sequence of digital camera exposures,…
The Big Dipper
The best known asterism in northern skies, The Big Dipper is easy to recognize , though some might see The Plough. Either way, the star names and the familiar outlines will appear…
Stereo Helene
Get out your red/blue glasses and float next to Helene, small, icy moon of Saturn. Appropriately named, Helene is one of four known Trojan moons, so called because it orbits at a…
MESSENGER's Degas View
Now imaging inner planet Mercury from orbit, the MESSENGER spacecraft wide angle camera has returned this impressive color view of Degas Crater , with a full resolution of 90…
Eclipsed Moonlight
A celestial prelude to today's solstice , the June 15 total lunar eclipse was one of the longest in recent years. It was also one of the darkest, but not completely dark. Even…
Last Roll Out of a NASA Space Shuttle
In the final move of its kind, NASA's space shuttle Atlantis was photographed earlier this month slowly advancing toward Launch Pad 39A , where it is currently scheduled for a…
The Regolith of Asteroid Eros
From fifty kilometers above asteroid Eros , the surface inside one of its largest craters appears covered with an unusual substance: regolith . The thickness and composition of…
Lightning Eclipse from the Planet of the Goats
Thunderstorms almost spoiled this view of the spectacular June 15 total lunar eclipse. Instead, storm clouds parted for 10 minutes during the total eclipse phase and lightning…
Eclipsed Moon in the Milky Way
On June 15, the totally eclipsed Moon was very dark, with the Moon itself positioned on the sky toward the center of our Milky Way Galaxy . This simple panorama captures totality…
Mercury's Surface in Exaggerated Color
The robotic MESSENGER spacecraft recently completed over 100 orbits of Mercury . MESSENGER's cameras have recorded detailed pictures utilizing eight different colors across…
Millions of Stars in Omega Centauri
Featured in this sharp telescopic image , globular star cluster Omega Centauri (NGC 5139) is some 15,000 light-years away. Some 150 light-years in diameter, the cluster is packed…
Viewing discoveries from 8 July 2011 through 15 June 2011.