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.
Galaxy NGC 474: Shells and Star Streams
What's happening to galaxy NGC 474? The multiple layers of emission appear strangely complex and unexpected given the relatively featureless appearance of the elliptical galaxy in…
Clouds and Crescents
A crescent Venus shines along the western horizon at dusk in this clearing sky . The Earth's sister planet is smiling between the low clouds near the bottom of the frame during…
Lovejoy in the New Year
A rival to vanquished Comet ISON in 2013, Comet Lovejoy (C/2013 R1) still sweeps through early morning skies, captured in this starry scene on New Year's day. The frame stretches…
Reflections on Planet Earth
Catching sight of your reflection in a store window or shiny hubcap can be entertaining and occasionally even inspire a thoughtful moment . So consider this reflective view from…
A New Year's Crescent
That's not the young crescent Moon poised above the western horizon at sunset. Instead it's Venus in a crescent phase , captured with a long telephoto lens from Quebec City,…
The Horsehead Nebula
The Horsehead Nebula is one of the most famous nebulae on the sky . It is visible as the dark indentation to the red emission nebula in the center of the above photograph. The…
Quantum Streampunk Fantasy Fractal Landscape
What strange world is this? Pictured above is no real place but rather a purely mathematical visualization of a generalization of a fractal into three dimensions. Classical…
Time-Lapse Auroras Over Norway
Sometimes, after your eyes adapt to the dark, a spectacular sky appears. Such was the case in 2011 March when one of the largest auroral displays in recent years appeared over…
Alaska Aurora Sequence
A remarkably intense auroral band flooded the northern night with shimmering colors on December 7. The stunning sequence captured here was made with a camera fixed to a tripod…
Melotte 15 in the Heart
Cosmic clouds seem to form fantastic shapes in the central regions of emission nebula IC 1805. Of course, the clouds are sculpted by stellar winds and radiation from massive hot…
The Hydrogen Clouds of M33
Gorgeous spiral galaxy M33 seems to have more than its fair share of glowing hydrogen gas. A prominent member of the local group of galaxies, M33 is also known as the Triangulum…
Phobos 360
What does the Martian moon Phobos look like? To better visualize this unusual object), images from ESA's Mars Express orbiter have been combined into a virtual rotation movie. The…
Sharpless 308: Star Bubble
Blown by fast winds from a hot, massive star, this cosmic bubble is huge. Cataloged as Sharpless 2-308 it lies some 5,200 light-years away toward the constellation of the Big Dog…
Geminid Meteors over Chile
From a radiant point in the constellation of the Twins, the annual Geminid meteor shower rained down on planet Earth over the past few weeks. Recorded near the shower's peak over…
Tutulemma: Solar Eclipse Analemma
If you went outside at exactly the same time every day and took a picture that included the Sun, how would the Sun's position change? With great planning and effort, such a series…
SDO's Multiwavelength Sun
Today, the solstice is at 17:11 Universal Time, the Sun reaching the southernmost declination in its yearly journey through planet Earth's sky. The December solstice marks the…
Titan's Land of Lakes
Saturn's large moon Titan would be unique in our solar system, the only world with stable liquid lakes and seas on its surface ... except for planet Earth of course. Centered on…
A Colorful Moon
The Moon is normally seen in subtle shades of grey or yellow. But small, measurable color differences have been greatly exaggerated to make this telescopic, multicolored,…
Light Pillars over Finland
What's happening behind those houses? Pictured above are not aurora but nearby light pillars , a local phenomenon that can appear as a distant one. In most places on Earth, a…
Geminid Meteors over Teide Volcano
On some nights it rains meteors. Peaking two nights ago, asteroid dust streaked through the dark skies of Earth, showering down during the annual Geminids meteor shower .…
Yutu Rover Rolls onto the Moon
A new desk-sized rover has begun exploring the Moon. Launched two weeks ago by the Chinese National Space Administration , the Chang'e 3 spacecraft landed on the Moon yesterday…
Gibbous Europa
Although the phase of this moon might appear familiar, the moon itself might not. In fact, this gibbous phase shows part of Jupiter 's moon Europa . The robot spacecraft Galileo…
The Bubble Nebula
Blown by the wind from a massive star, this interstellar apparition has a surprisingly familiar shape . Cataloged as NGC 7635, it is also known simply as The Bubble Nebula .…
Geminid Meteor Shower over Dashanbao Wetlands
The annual Geminid meteor shower is raining down on planet Earth this week. Despite the waxing gibbous moonlight, the reliable Geminids should be enjoyable tonight (night of…
Viewing discoveries from 5 January 2014 through 13 December 2013.