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.
Virgo Cluster Galaxies
Well over a thousand galaxies are known members of the Virgo Cluster , the closest large cluster of galaxies to our own local group . In fact, the galaxy cluster is difficult to…
A Proton Arc Over Lake Superior
The setting had been picked out -- all that was needed was an aurora. And late last August, forecasts predicted that an otherwise beautiful night sky would be lit up with auroral…
Apollo 17 at Shorty Crater
On the Moon, it is easy to remember where you parked. In December of 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent about 75 hours on the Moon in the…
Stripping ESO 137-001
Spiral galaxy ESO 137-001 hurtles through massive galaxy cluster Abell 3627 some 220 million light years away. The distant galaxy is seen in this colorful Hubble/Chandra composite…
The ISS and a Colorful Moon
Tonight's Full Moon, the second Full Moon in July, could be called a blue moon according to modern folklore . But this sharp and detailed mosaic, recorded with telescope and…
Milky Way over Uluru
The central regions of our Milky Way Galaxy rise above Uluru/Ayers Rock in this striking night skyscape . Recorded on July 13, a faint airglow along the horizon shows off central…
The Deep Lagoon
Ridges of glowing interstellar gas and dark dust clouds inhabit the turbulent, cosmic depths of the Lagoon Nebula. Also known as M8, The bright star forming region is about 5,000…
Rainbows and Rays over Bryce Canyon
What's happening over Bryce Canyon? Two different optical effects that were captured in one image taken earlier this month. Both effects needed to have the Sun situated directly…
Milky Way and Aurora over Antarctica
It has been one of the better skies of this long night. In parts of Antarctica , not only is it winter, but the Sun can spend weeks below the horizon. At China's Zhongshan Station…
The Sombrero Galaxy from Hubble
Why does the Sombrero Galaxy look like a hat? Reasons include the Sombrero 's unusually large and extended central bulge of stars, and dark prominent dust lanes that appear in a…
Infrared Trifid
The Trifid Nebula, also known as Messier 20 , is easy to find with a small telescope, a well known stop in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius . But where visible light…
Ultraviolet Rings of M31
A mere 2.5 million light-years away the Andromeda Galaxy, also known as M31, really is just next door as large galaxies go. So close and spanning some 260,000 light-years, it took…
Comet PanSTARRS, Moon, and Venus
It is the object to the left of the big tree that's generating much recent excitement. If you look closely, there you can see Comet PanSTARRS , complete with two tails . During…
Gamma-ray Rain from 3C 279
If gamma-rays were raindrops a flare from a supermassive black hole might look like this. Not so gently falling on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope from June 14 to June 16 the…
Comet Tails and Star Trails
After grazing the western horizon on northern summer evenings Comet PanSTARRS (also known as C/2014 Q1) climbed higher in southern winter skies. A visitor to the inner Solar…
Comet PanSTARRS and a Crescent Moon
A comet has brightened quickly and unexpectedly. Discovered last year, Comet C/2014 Q1 (PanSTARRS) is expected to be visible now for a few days to the unaided eye, just after…
The First Rocket Launch from Cape Canaveral
A new chapter in space flight began this week in 1950 July with the launch of the first rocket from Cape Canaveral , Florida : the Bumper V-2. Shown above , the Bumper V-2 was an…
Fly Over Pluto
It took 9.5 years to get this close, but you can now take a virtual flight over Pluto in this animation of image data from the New Horizons spacecraft. The Plutonian terrain…
Charon
Icy world Charon is 1,200 kilometers across. That makes Pluto's largest moon only about 1/10th the size of planet Earth but a whopping 1/2 the diameter of Pluto itself . Charon is…
50 Miles on Pluto
A 50 mile (80 kilometer) trip across Pluto would cover the distance indicated by the scale bar in this startling image. The close-up of the icy world's rugged equatorial terrain…
Pluto Resolved
New Horizons has survived its close encounter with Pluto and has resumed sending back images and data. The robotic spacecraft reported back on time, with all systems working , and…
New Horizons Passes Pluto and Charon
Will the New Horizons spacecraft survive its closest approach to Pluto and return useful images and data? Humanity will know in a few hours. Regardless of how well it functions,…
Last Look at Pluto's Charon Side
Pluto surface is strange. As the robotic New Horizons barrels toward its closest approach to Pluto and its moons tomorrow, images already coming back show Pluto's surface to be…
New Horizons Launch to Pluto
Destination: Pluto. The New Horizons spacecraft roared off its launch pad at Cape Canaveral in Florida , USA in 2006 toward adventures in the distant Solar System . The craft is…
Viewing discoveries from 4 August 2015 through 12 July 2015.