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 Comet Hartley 2 Cruise
Early last November, small but active Comet Hartley 2 (103/P Hartley) became the fifth comet imaged close-up by a spacecraft from planet Earth . Still cruising through the solar…
M82: Starburst Galaxy with a Superwind
Also known as the Cigar Galaxy for its elongated visual appearance, M82 is a starburst galaxy with a superwind. In fact , through ensuing supernova explosions and powerful winds…
QR Codes: Not for Human Eyes
This communication was not meant for human eyes. It was not even meant for aliens eyes . It's an attempt to communicate directly with your smartphone . Cameras on many smartphones…
Tunguska: The Largest Recent Impact Event
Yes, but can your meteor do this? The most powerful natural explosion in recent Earth history occurred on 1908 June 30 when a meteor exploded above the Tunguska River in Siberia ,…
Asteroids Near Earth
Though the sizes are not to scale, the Sun and planets of the inner solar system are shown in this illustration, where each red dot represents an asteroid. New results from…
Cloudy Night of the Northern Lights
On September 26 , a large solar coronal mass ejection smacked into planet Earth's magnetosphere producing a severe geomagnetic storm and wide spread auroras. Captured here near…
Cocoon Nebula Wide Field
In this crowded starfield spanning some 3 degrees within the high flying constellation Cygnus , the eye is drawn to the Cocoon Nebula. A compact star forming region, the cosmic…
Violent Sunspot Group AR 1302 Unleashes a Flare
One of the most active sunspot groups in years is currently crossing the Sun. AR 1302 first came around the Sun's edge last week and is so large it can be seen without a…
Dry Ice Pits on Mars
Part of Mars is defrosting. Around the South Pole of Mars, toward the end of every Martian summer, the warm weather causes a section of the vast carbon-dioxide ice cap to…
A Large Tsunami Shock Wave on the Sun
Tsunamis this large don't happen on Earth. During 2006, a large solar flare from an Earth-sized sunspot produced a tsunami -type shock wave that was spectacular even for the Sun.…
Mangaia's Milky Way
From Sagittarius to Carina , the Milky Way Galaxy shines in this dark night sky above planet Earth's lush island paradise of Mangaia . Familiar to denizens of the southern…
September's Aurora
September's equinox arrives today at 0905 UT. As the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading south, spring begins in the southern hemisphere and autumn in the north. And though…
Arp 272
Linking spiral arms, two large colliding galaxies are featured in this remarkable cosmic portrait constructed using image data from the Hubble Legacy Archive . Recorded in…
Pleiades Deep Field
Have you ever seen the Pleiades star cluster? Even if you have, you probably have never seen it like this: all dusty. Perhaps the most famous star cluster on the sky, the bright…
The South Pole of Asteroid Vesta
What created the circular structure around the south pole of asteroid Vesta? Pictured above , the bottom of the second largest object in the asteroid belt was recently imaged for…
A Sharp View of the Sun
Here is one of the sharper views of the Sun ever taken. This stunning image shows remarkable details of a dark sunspot across the image bottom and numerous boiling granules which…
Spitzer's Orion
Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination like the Orion Nebula , an immense stellar nursery some 1,500 light-years away. This stunning false-color view spans about 40 light-years…
September's Harvest Moon
A Full Moon rising can be a dramatic celestial sight , and Full Moons can have many names. For example, Monday's Full Moon was the one nearest this year's autumnal equinox for the…
NGC 3521: Galaxy in a Bubble
Gorgeous spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is a mere 35 million light-years away, toward the constellation Leo . Relatively bright in planet Earth's sky, NGC 3521 is easily visible in small…
The Bubble and M52
To the eye, this cosmic composition nicely balances the Bubble Nebula at the lower right with open star cluster M52. The pair would be lopsided on other scales, though. Embedded…
Great Orion Nebulae
The Great Nebula in Orion , also known as M42, is one of the most famous nebulas in the sky. The star forming region's glowing gas clouds and hot young stars are on the right in…
Tisdale 2 Rock Formation on Mars
Why does this Martian rock have so much zinc? Roughly the size and shape of a tilted coffee-table, this oddly flat, light-topped rock outcropping was chanced upon a few weeks ago…
On the Origin of Gold
Where did the gold in your jewelry originate? No one is completely sure . The relative average abundance in our Solar System appears higher than can be made in the early universe…
Rollback from GRAIL's Rocket
This dramatic time-lapse photo traces a 20 minute long, late evening rollback of the lighted Mobile Service Tower at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 17. Twin…
Viewing discoveries from 7 October 2011 through 10 September 2011.