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.
Opportunity Rover Spots Greeley Haven on Mars
Where on Mars should you spend the winter? As winter approached in the southern hemisphere of Mars last November, the Opportunity rover had just this problem -- it needed a place…
January Aurora Over Norway
What's that in the sky? An aurora. A large coronal mass ejection occurred on our Sun five days ago, throwing a cloud of fast moving electrons, protons, and ions toward the Earth.…
Deep Orion Over the Canary Islands
Which attracts your eye more -- the sky or the ground? On the ground are rocky peaks in Teide National Park on Tenerife Island of the Spanish Canary Islands off the northwestern…
Saturn's Hexagon Comes to Light
Believe it or not, this is the North Pole of Saturn. It is unclear how an unusual hexagonal cloud system that surrounds Saturn's north pole was created, keeps its shape, or how…
Days in the Sun
From solstice to solstice, this six month long exposure compresses time from the 21st of June till the 21st of December, 2011, into a single point of view. Dubbed a solargraph ,…
The Wolf's Moon
A Full Moon rising can be a dramatic celestial sight , and Full Moons can have many names. Captured on January 8 from Östersund, Sweden, this evocative moonrise portrait might…
The Hunter's Stars
Begirt with many a blazing star, Orion, the Hunter , is one of the most easily recognizable constellations . In this night skyscape from January 15, the hunter's stars rise in the…
Cygnus-X: The Inner Workings of a Nearby Star Factory
How do stars form? To help study this complex issue, astronomers took a deep infrared image of Cygnus X , the largest known star forming region in the entire Milky Way Galaxy .…
IC 2118: The Witch Head Nebula
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble -- maybe Macbeth should have consulted the Witch Head Nebula. This suggestively shaped reflection nebula is…
Zodiacal Light and the False Dawn
Is it dawn or false dawn? During certain times of the year, the horizon near the rising Sun will begin to glow unusually early. This early glow does not originate directly from…
Infrared Portrait of the Large Magellanic Cloud
Cosmic dust clouds ripple across this infrared portrait of our Milky Way's satellite galaxy , the Large Magellanic Cloud. In fact, the remarkable composite image from the Herschel…
NGC 6369: The Little Ghost Nebula
This pretty planetary nebula, cataloged as NGC 6369 , was discovered by 18th century astronomer William Herschel as he used a telescope to explore the medicinal constellation…
Saturn's Iapetus: Painted Moon
What has happened to Saturn's moon Iapetus? Vast sections of this strange world are dark as coal , while others are as bright as ice. The composition of the dark material is…
The Case of the Missing Supernova Companion
Where's the other star? At the center of this supernova remnant should be the companion star to the star that blew up. Identifying this star is important for understanding just…
Little Planet Lovejoy
Once a bright apparition in the southern hemisphere dawn Comet Lovejoy is fading, but its long tail still stretches across skies near the south celestial pole. Captured on the…
Bright Star Regulus near the Leo I Dwarf Galaxy
The star near the top is so bright that it is sometimes hard to notice the galaxy toward the bottom. Pictured above , both the star, Regulus , and the galaxy, Leo I , can be found…
Facing NGC 6946
From our vantage point in the Milky Way Galaxy , we see NGC 6946 face-on . The big, beautiful spiral galaxy is located just 10 million light-years away, behind a veil of…
Lighthouse and Meteor
Named for a forgotten constellation, the Quadrantid Meteor Shower is an annual event for planet Earth's northern hemisphere skygazers. It usually peaks briefly in the cold, early…
Grand Spiral Galaxy NGC 1232
Galaxies are fascinating not only for what is visible, but for what is invisible. Grand spiral galaxy NGC 1232 , captured in detail by one of the new Very Large Telescopes , is a…
A Wide Field Image of the Galactic Center
From Sagittarius to Scorpius , the central Milky Way is a truly beautiful part of planet Earth's night sky. The gorgeous region is captured in this wide field image spanning about…
Ringside with Titan and Dione
Orbiting in the plane of Saturn's rings , Saturnian moons have a perpetual ringside view of the gorgeous gas giant planet. Of course, while passing near the ring plane the Cassini…
Starburst Galaxy IC 10
Lurking behind dust and stars near the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy, IC 10 is a mere 2.3 million light-years distant. Even though its light is dimmed by intervening dust, the…
A Full Sky Aurora Over Norway
Higher than the highest building , higher than the highest mountain , higher than the highest airplane , lies the realm of the aurora. Auroras rarely reach below 60 kilometers,…
Spot the Moon
Where's the full Moon? Somewhere in this image, the Earth's Moon is hiding. The entire Moon is visible, in its completely full phase, in plain sight. Even the photographer's keen…
Viewing discoveries from 25 January 2012 through 2 January 2012.