Browse NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day archive by date and media: Archive Discoveries
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The Observable Universe
How far can you see? Everything you can see, and everything you could possibly see, right now, assuming your eyes could detect all types of radiations around you -- is the…
The Unusual Boulder at Tycho's Peak
Why is there a large boulder near the center of Tycho's peak? Tycho crater on the Moon is one of the easiest features to see, visible even to the unaided eye (inset, lower right).…
Meteors, Planes, and a Galaxy over Bryce Canyon
Sometimes land and sky are both busy and beautiful. The landscape pictured in the foreground encompasses Bryce Canyon in Utah , USA , famous for its many interesting rock…
Stickney Crater
Stickney Crater, the largest crater on the martian moon Phobos, is named for Chloe Angeline Stickney Hall, mathematician and wife of astronomer Asaph Hall. Asaph Hall discovered…
The View Toward M101
Big, beautiful spiral galaxy M101 is one of the last entries in Charles Messier's famous catalog, but definitely not one of the least . About 170,000 light-years across, this…
Opposite the Setting Sun
On April 30, a Full Moon rose opposite the setting Sun. Its yellowish moonglow silhouettes a low tree-lined ridge along Lewis Mountain in this northeastern Alabama skyscape.…
Moon Halo over Stone Circle
Have you ever seen a halo around the Moon ? This fairly common sight occurs when high thin clouds containing millions of tiny ice crystals cover much of the sky. Each ice crystal…
The Aurora and the Sunrise
On the International Space Station (ISS), you can only admire an aurora until the sun rises. Then the background Earth becomes too bright. Unfortunately, after sunset , the rapid…
Total Solar Eclipse Corona in HDR
How great was the Great American Eclipse ? The featured HDR image shows it to be perhaps greater than we knew. On August 21 of last year, the Moon blocked the Sun for a few…
Wanderers
How far out will humanity explore? If this video's fusion of real space imagery and fictional space visualizations is on the right track, then at least the Solar System. Some of…
Magellanic Mountain
Flanked by satellite galaxies of the Milky Way a volcanic peak rises from this rugged horizon. The southern night skyscape looks toward the south over Laguna Lejia and the…
Gaia's Milky Way
This grand allsky view of our Milky Way and nearby galaxies is not a photograph . It's a map based on individual measurements for nearly 1.7 billion stars. The astronomically rich…
The Snows of Churyumov-Gerasimenko
You couldn't really be caught in this blizzard while standing by a cliff on Churyumov-Gerasimenko , also known as comet 67P. Orbiting the comet in June of 2016 the Rosetta…
Hubble's Jupiter and the Shrinking Great Red Spot
What will become of Jupiter's Great Red Spot? Gas giant Jupiter is the solar system's largest world with about 320 times the mass of planet Earth . Jupiter is home to one of the…
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Play Saturn's Rings Like a Harp
Sure, you've seen Saturn's rings -- but have you ever heard them? Well then please take this opportunity to play Saturn's rings like a harp. In the featured sonification,…
The Blue Horsehead Nebula in Infrared
The Blue Horsehead Nebula looks quite different in infrared light. In visible light , the reflecting dust of the nebula appears blue and shaped like a horse's head . In infrared…
Meteor Over Crater Lake
Did you see it? One of the more common questions during a meteor shower occurs because the time it takes for a meteor to flash is typically less than the time it takes for a head…
TESS Launch Close Up
NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) began its search for planets orbiting other stars by leaving planet Earth on April 18. The exoplanet hunter rode to orbit on…
Moon in the Hyades
Have you seen the Moon lately ? On April 18, its waxing sunlit crescent moved through planet Earth's night across a background of stars in the Hyades . Anchored by bright star…
NGC 7635: 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 .…
Milky Way over Deadvlei in Namibia
What planet is this? It is the only planet currently known to have trees. The trees in Deadvlei , though, have been dead for over 500 years. Located in Namib-Naukluft Park in…
M57: The Ring Nebula
Except for the rings of Saturn , the Ring Nebula (M57) is probably the most famous celestial band . Its classic appearance is understood to be due to our own perspective, though.…
Flyover of Jupiter's North Pole in Infrared
What would it look like to fly over the North Pole of Jupiter? A fictional animation made from real images and data captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft shows an answer. Since the…
Space Shuttle Rising
What's that rising from the clouds? The space shuttle. Sometimes, if you look out the window of an airplane at just the right time and place, you see something unusual -- in this…
Viewing discoveries from 8 May 2018 through 15 April 2018.