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.
All the Water on Planet Earth
How much of planet Earth is made of water? Very little, actually. Although oceans of water cover about 70 percent of Earth's surface, these oceans are shallow compared to the…
Virtual Flight Over Asteroid Vesta
What would it be like to fly over the asteroid Vesta? Animators from the German Aerospace Center recently took actual images and height data from NASA's Dawn mission currently…
Spiral Galaxy NGC 1672 from Hubble
Many spiral galaxies have bars across their centers. Even our own Milky Way Galaxy is thought to have a modest central bar . Prominently barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672, pictured…
The Hydra Cluster of Galaxies
Two stars within our own Milky Way galaxy anchor the foreground of this cosmic snapshot . Beyond them lie the galaxies of the Hydra Cluster . In fact, while the spiky foreground…
Sun vs. Super Moon
The Super Moon wins , by just a little, when its apparent size is compared to the Sun in this ingenious composite picture. To make it, the Full Moon on May 6 was photographed with…
Green Flash and Super Moon
It was really not about superheroes as on May 6 the much touted Super Moon, the largest Full Moon of 2012 , rose over this otherwise peaceful harbor. And no supervillains were…
Shuttle Enterprise Over New York
What's that in the background? Two famous New York City icons stand tall in the above photo taken last week. On the left looms the Statue of Liberty , a universal symbol of…
The Light of Stars
What's moving? Time lapse videos of the sky can be quite spectacular when they last long enough for stars, planets, aurora, and clouds to appear to move in just a few seconds.…
Supermoon Over Paris
Did you see that full Moon Saturday night? Dubbed a supermoon , the latest fully illuminated moon appeared slightly larger than usual because it occurred unusually near the…
In the Center of the Omega Nebula
In the depths of the dark clouds of dust and molecular gas known as the Omega Nebula , stars continue to form. The above image from the Hubble Space Telescope 's Advanced Camera…
Full Moonrise
Rising as the Sun sets, tonight's Full Moon could be hard to miss. Remarkably, its exact full phase (May 6 03:36 UT) will occur less than two minutes after it reaches perigee, the…
Fermi Epicycles: The Vela Pulsar's Path
Exploring the cosmos at extreme energies, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope orbits planet Earth every 95 minutes. By design , it rocks to the north and then to the south on…
M106 Close Up
Close to the Great Bear (Ursa Major) and surrounded by the stars of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici), this celestial wonder was discovered in 1781 by the metric French astronomer…
Saturn's Moon Helene in Color
Although its colors may be subtle, Saturn's moon Helene is an enigma in any light. The moon was imaged in unprecedented detail last June as the robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting…
Higgs Boson Explained by Cartoon
What is all this fuss about the Higgs boson? The physics community is abuzz that a fundamental particle expected by the largely successful Standard Model of particle physics may…
Aurora Over Raufarhfn
It was all lined up even without the colorful aurora exploding overhead. If you follow the apex line of the recently deployed monuments of Arctic Henge in Raufarhfn in northern…
A Dangerous Sunrise on Gliese 876d
On planet Gliese 876d, sunrises might be dangerous. Although nobody really knows what conditions are like on this close-in planet orbiting variable red dwarf star Gliese 876 , the…
Sutter's Mill Meteorite
Last Sunday's bright fireball meteor falling through skies over California and Nevada produced sonic booms over a broad area around 7:51 am. Estimates indicate the meteor was…
Jupiter and the Moons of Earth
Planet Earth has many moons . Its largest artifical moon, the International Space Station , streaks through this lovely skyview with clouds in silhouette against the fading light…
Morning, Moon, and Mercury
Last week Mercury wandered far to the west of the Sun. As the solar system's innermost planet neared its greatest elongation or greatest angle from the Sun (for this apparition…
Meteor Over Crater Lake
Did you see it? One of the more common questions during a meteor shower occurs because the time it takes for a meteor to flash is typically less than the time it takes for a head…
Rosetta Approaches Asteroid Lutetia
What would it look like to approach an asteroid in a spaceship? In 2010, ESA's robotic Rosetta spacecraft zipped past the asteroid 21 Lutetia taking data and snapping images in an…
Evaporating Blobs of the Carina Nebula
No, they are not alive -- but they are dying. The unusual blobs found in the Carina nebula , some of which are seen floating on the upper right, might best be described as…
Flowing Barchan Sand Dunes on Mars
When does Mars act like a liquid? Although liquids freeze and evaporate quickly into the thin atmosphere of Mars, persistent winds may make large sand dunes appear to flow and…
Viewing discoveries from 15 May 2012 through 22 April 2012.