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.
M82: Galaxy with a Supergalactic Wind
What's lighting up the Cigar Galaxy? M82 , as this irregular galaxy is also known, was stirred up by a recent pass near large spiral galaxy M81 . This doesn't fully explain the…
Where Your Shadow Has Company
Want to take a relaxing interstellar vacation ? Consider visiting Kepler-16b , a world in a binary star system. In fact Kepler-16b is the first discovered circumbinary planet . It…
NGC 2403 in Camelopardalis
Magnificent island universe NGC 2403 stands within the boundaries of the long-necked constellation Camelopardalis . Some 10 million light-years distant and about 50,000…
Hitomi Launches
On February 17 at 5:45pm JST this H-IIA rocket blasted skyward from JAXA's Tanegashima Space Center located off the southern coast of Japan, planet Earth. Onboard was the ASTRO-H…
Milky Way over the Pinnacles in Australia
What strange world is this? E a r t h . In the foreground of the featured image are the Pinnacles , unusual rock spires in Nambung National Park in Western Australia . Made of…
Star Forming Region S106
Massive star IRS 4 is beginning to spread its wings. Born only about 100,000 years ago, material streaming out from this newborn star has formed the nebula dubbed Sharpless 2-106…
White Rock Fingers on Mars
What caused this unusual light rock formation on Mars? Intrigued by the possibility that they could be salt deposits left over as an ancient lakebed dried-up , detailed studies of…
A Heart Shaped Lenticular Cloud
Can a cloud love a mountain? Perhaps not, but on a Valentine's Day like today, one might be prone to seeing heart-shaped symbols where they don't actually exist. A fleeting…
Yutu on a Little Planet
Tracks lead to a small robot perched near the top of this bright little planet. Of course, the planet is really the Moon. The robot is the desk-sized Yutu rover, leaving its…
Two Black Holes Merge
Just press play to watch two black holes merge. Inspired by the first direct detection of gravitational waves by LIGO, this simulation video plays in slow motion but would take…
LIGO Detects Gravitational Waves from Merging Black Holes
Gravitational radiation has been directly detected. The first-ever detection was made by both facilities of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in…
Galaxies in the River
Large galaxies grow by eating small ones. Even our own galaxy practices galactic cannibalism , absorbing small galaxies that get too close and are captured by the Milky Way's…
The Rise and Fall of Supernova 2015F
Sit back and watch a star explode. The actual supernova occurred back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, but images of the spectacular event began arriving last year. Supernova…
Light Pillars over Alaska
What's happening behind those houses? Pictured here are not auroras but nearby light pillars , a nearby phenomenon that can appear as a distant one. In most places on Earth , a…
Advanced LIGO: Gravitational Wave Detectors Upgraded
Accelerate a charge and you'll get electromagnetic radiation : light. But accelerate any mass and you'll get gravitational radiation . Light is seen all the time, but, so far, a…
Five Planets at Castell de Burriac
February's five planet line-up stretches across a clear sky in this predawn scene. A hilltop Castell de Burriac looms in the foreground, overlooking the town of Cabrera de Mar…
Massive Stars in NGC 6357
Massive stars lie within NGC 6357 , an expansive emission nebula complex some 6,500 light-years away toward the tail of the constellation Scorpius . In fact, positioned near…
Dwarf Planet Ceres
Dwarf planet Ceres is the largest object in the Solar System's main asteroid belt , with a diameter of about 950 kilometers (590 miles). Ceres is seen here in approximately true…
Galaxy Wars: M81 versus M82
In the lower left corner, surrounded by blue spiral arms, is spiral galaxy M81 . In the upper right corner, marked by red gas and dust clouds, is irregular galaxy M82 . This…
Comet 67P from Spacecraft Rosetta
Spacecraft Rosetta continues to circle and map Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Crossing the inner Solar System for ten years to reach the vicinity of the comet in 2014, the robotic…
Find the Man in the Moon
Have you ever seen the Man in the Moon? This common question plays on the ability of humans to see pareidolia -- imagining familiar icons where they don't actually exist. The…
MWC 922: The Red Square Nebula
What could cause a nebula to appear square? No one is quite sure. The hot star system known as MWC 922 , however, appears to be embedded in a nebula with just such a shape. The…
A Five Planet Dawn
As January closes and in the coming days of February, early morning risers can spot the five naked-eye planets before dawn. Though some might claim to see six planets, in this…
Hidden Galaxy IC 342
Similar in size to large, bright spiral galaxies in our neighborhood, IC 342 is a mere 10 million light-years distant in the long-necked, northern constellation Camelopardalis . A…
Viewing discoveries from 21 February 2016 through 29 January 2016.