Browse NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day archive by date and media: Archive Discoveries
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Trio Leo
This popular group is famous as the Leo Triplet - a gathering of three magnificent galaxies in one field of view. Crowd pleasers when imaged with even modest telescopes, they can…
When Vega is North
In only about 12,000 years Vega will be the North Star, the closest bright star to our fair planet's North Celestial Pole . By then, when you fix your camera to a tripod long…
At the Limit of Diffraction
Did you ever want to just look through the eyepiece of a large telescope in space ? If you could, you would see a sharp view that was diffraction limited . Unaffected by…
Summer Triangles over Japan
Have you ever seen the Summer Triangle? The bright stars Vega , Deneb , and Altair form a large triangle on the sky that can be seen rising in the northern early spring during the…
Gravitational Anomalies of Mercury
What's that under the surface of Mercury? The robotic MESSENGER spacecraft that had been orbiting planet Mercury for the past four years had been transmitting its data back to…
An Unexpected Aurora over Norway
Sometimes the sky lights up unexpectedly. A trip to northern Norway to photograph auroras was not going as well as hoped. It was now past midnight in Steinsvik , Troms , in…
Moonrise Through Mauna Kea's Shadow
How can the Moon rise through a mountain? It cannot -- what was photographed here is a moonrise through the shadow of a large volcano . The volcano is Mauna Kea , Hawai'i , USA ,…
M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy
Follow the handle of the Big Dipper away from the dipper's bowl until you get to the handle's last bright star. Then, just slide your telescope a little south and west and you…
MESSENGER's Last Day on Mercury
The first to orbit Mercury, the MESSENGER spacecraft came to rest on this region of Mercury's surface yesterday . Constructed from MESSENGER image and laser altimeter data, the…
Across the Sun
A long solar filament stretches across the relatively calm surface of the Sun in this telescopic snap shot from April 27. The negative or inverted narrowband image was made in the…
Comet Churyumov Gerasimenko in Crescent
What's happening to Comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko? As the 3-km wide comet moves closer to the Sun, heat causes the nucleus to expel gas and dust . The Rosetta spacecraft arrived…
Massive Nearby Spiral Galaxy NGC 2841
It is one of the more massive galaxies known. A mere 46 million light-years distant, spiral galaxy NGC 2841 can be found in the northern constellation of Ursa Major . This sharp…
Space Station over Lunar Terminator
What's that in front of the Moon? It's the International Space Station . Using precise timing, the Earth-orbiting space platform was photographed in front of a partially lit Moon…
Planetary Nebula Mz3: The Ant Nebula
Why isn't this ant a big sphere? Planetary nebula Mz3 is being cast off by a star similar to our Sun that is, surely, round. Why then would the gas that is streaming away create…
Cluster and Starforming Region Westerlund 2
Located 20,000 light-years away in the constellation Carina, the young cluster and starforming region Westerlund 2 fills this cosmic scene . Captured with Hubble's cameras in…
Blue Tears and the Milky Way
Lapping at rocks along the shore of the Island of Nangan, Taiwan, planet Earth , waves are infused with a subtle blue light in this sea and night skyscape. Composed of a series of…
Meteor in the Milky Way
Earth's April showers include the Lyrid Meteor Shower , observed for more than 2,000 years when the planet makes its annual passage through the dust stream of long-period Comet…
Colorful Star Clouds in Cygnus
Stars can form in colorful surroundings. Featured here is a star forming region rich in glowing gas and dark dust toward the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus), near the bright…
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Vesta Trek: A Digital Model of Asteroid Vesta
You can explore asteroid Vesta. Recently, NASA's robotic spaceship Dawn visited Vesta, the second largest object in our Solar System's main asteroid belt, which lies between Mars…
Total Solar Eclipse over Svalbard
Going, going, gone. That was the feeling in Svalbard , Norway last month during a total eclipse of the Sun by the Moon. In the featured image , the eclipse was captured every…
Ring Galaxy AM 0644-741 from Hubble
How could a galaxy become shaped like a ring? The rim of the blue galaxy pictured on the right is an immense ring-like structure 150,000 light years in diameter composed of newly…
The Great Crater Hokusai
One of the largest young craters on Mercury, 114 kilometer (71 mile) diameter Hokusai crater's bright rays are known to extend across much of the planet . But this mosaic of…
M46 Plus Two
Galactic or open star clusters are young. These swarms of stars are born together near the plane of the Milky Way, but their numbers steadily dwindle as cluster members are…
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One-Armed Spiral Galaxy NGC 4725
While most spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way, have two or more spiral arms, NGC 4725 has only one. In this sharp color composite image, the solo spira mirabilis seems…
Viewing discoveries from 9 May 2015 through 16 April 2015.