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.
Stephan's Quintet Plus One
The first identified compact galaxy group, Stephan's Quintet is featured in this remarkable image constructed with data drawn from Hubble Legacy Archive and the Subaru Telescope…
M78 and Reflecting Dust Clouds
An eerie blue glow and ominous columns of dark dust highlight M78 and other bright reflection nebula in the constellation of Orion . The dark filamentary dust not only absorbs…
Orion Nebula in Surrounding Dust
What surrounds a hotbed of star formation? In the case of the Orion Nebula -- dust. The entire Orion field , located about 1600 light years away, is inundated with intricate and…
Orion and Aurora over Iceland
If you see a sky like this -- photograph it. A month ago in Iceland , an adventurous photographer chanced across a sky full of aurora and did just that. In the foreground lies the…
The View Near a Black Hole
In the center of a swirling whirlpool of hot gas is likely a beast that has never been seen directly: a black hole . Studies of the bright light emitted by the swirling gas…
Martian Chiaroscuro
Deep shadows create dramatic contrasts between light and dark in this high-resolution close-up of the martian surface. Recorded on January 24 by the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars…
Star Trails over El Capitan
Towering 3,000 feet from base to summit, the famous granite face of El Capitan in Earth's Yosemite National Park just hides the planet's north celestial pole in this skyscape. Of…
Solargraphy Analemmas
Today is the equinox . The Sun crosses the celestial equator heading north at 16:57 UT, marking the northern hemisphere's first day of spring. To celebrate, consider this…
Equinox on a Spinning Earth
When does the line between day and night become vertical? Tomorrow. Tomorrow is an equinox on planet Earth, a time of year when day and night are most nearly equal. At an equinox,…
Cosmic Microwave Map Swirls Indicate Inflation
Did the universe undergo an early epoch of extremely rapid expansion? Such an inflationary epoch has been postulated to explain several puzzling cosmic attributes such as why our…
Warped Sky: Star Trails over Arches National Park
What's happened to the sky? A time warp, of sorts, and a digital space warp too. The time warp occurs because this image captured in a single frame a two and a half hour exposure…
The Antennae Galaxies in Collision
Two galaxies are squaring off in Corvus and here are the latest pictures . When two galaxies collide , the stars that compose them usually do not. That's because galaxies are…
Apollo 17 VIP Site Anaglyph
Get out your red/blue glasses and check out this stereo scene from Taurus-Littrow valley on the Moon! The color anaglyph features a detailed 3D view of Apollo 17's Lunar Rover in…
Polar Ring Galaxy NGC 2685
NGC 2685 is a confirmed polar ring galaxy - a rare type of galaxy with stars, gas and dust orbiting in rings perpendicular to the plane of a flat galactic disk. The bizarre…
Messier 63: The Sunflower Galaxy
A bright spiral galaxy of the northern sky, Messier 63 is about 25 million light-years distant in the loyal constellation Canes Venatici . Also cataloged as NGC 5055, the majestic…
The Sun Rotating
Does the Sun change as it rotates? Yes, and the changes can vary from subtle to dramatic. In the above time-lapse sequences, our Sun -- as imaged by NASA's Solar Dynamics…
In the Heart of the Rosette Nebula
In the heart of the Rosette Nebula lies a bright open cluster of stars that lights up the nebula. The stars of NGC 2244 formed from the surrounding gas only a few million years…
Gamma Rays from Galactic Center Dark Matter?
What is creating the gamma rays at the center of our Galaxy? Excitement is building that one answer is elusive dark matter . Over the past few years the orbiting Fermi Gamma-ray…
A Hole in Mars
What created this unusual hole in Mars? The hole was discovered by chance in 2011 on images of the dusty slopes of Mars' Pavonis Mons volcano taken by the HiRISE instrument aboard…
Mount Sharp on the Horizon
Get out your red/blue glasses (red for the left eye) and look out over this expansive martian landscape . The panoramic stereo view is composed of images from the roving…
A View from the Zone
Brilliant Venus and the central Milky Way rise in the early morning hours of March 1 in this sea and skyscape. The scene looks out from a beach at Sea Isle City, New Jersey, USA,…
NGC 1333 Stardust
NGC 1333 is seen in visible light as a reflection nebula , dominated by bluish hues characteristic of starlight reflected by dust. A mere 1,000 light-years distant toward the…
Globules in the Running Chicken Nebula
The eggs from this chicken may form into stars. The above pictured emission nebula, cataloged as IC 2944 , is called the Running Chicken Nebula for the shape of its greater…
Sun and Prominence
Dramatic prominences can sometimes be seen looming just beyond the edge of the sun. Such was the case last week as a large prominence, visible above , highlighted a highly active…
Viewing discoveries from 27 March 2014 through 4 March 2014.