Browse NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day archive by date and media: Archive Discoveries
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Saturn's Iapetus: Painted Moon in 3D
What has happened to Saturn's moon Iapetus? Vast sections of this strange world are dark brown, while others are as bright white. The composition of the dark material is unknown,…
M27: The Dumbbell Nebula
What will become of our Sun? The first hint of our Sun 's future was discovered inadvertently in 1764 . At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list of diffuse objects not…
Find the Moon
Where's the Moon? Somewhere in this image, the Earth's Moon is hiding. The entire Moon is visible, in its completely full phase, in plain sight. Even the photographer's keen eye…
Mercury and the Da Vinci Glow
On July 8th early morning risers saw Mercury near an old Moon low on the eastern horizon. On that date bright planet, faint glow of lunar night side, and sunlit crescent were…
M82: Starburst Galaxy with a Superwind
M82 is a starburst galaxy with a superwind. In fact , through ensuing supernova explosions and powerful winds from massive stars, the burst of star formation in M82 is driving a…
Perihelion to Aphelion
Aphelion for 2021 occurred on July 5th. That's the point in Earth's elliptical orbit when it is farthest from the Sun. Of course, the distance from the Sun doesn't determine the…
Flight Through the Orion Nebula in Infrared Light
What would it look like to fly into the Orion Nebula? The exciting dynamic visualization of the Orion Nebula is based on real astronomical data and adept movie rendering…
Saturn and Six Moons
How many moons does Saturn have? So far 82 have been confirmed , the smallest being only a fraction of a kilometer across. Six of its largest satellites can be seen here in a…
IC 4592: The Blue Horsehead Reflection Nebula
Do you see the horse's head? What you are seeing is not the famous Horsehead nebula toward Orion but rather a fainter nebula that only takes on a familiar form with deeper…
The Face on Mars
Wouldn't it be fun if clouds were castles ? Wouldn't it be fun if the laundry on the bedroom chair was a superhero ? Wouldn't it be fun if rock mesas on Mars were interplanetary…
Along the Milky Way
You can't walk along the Milky Way . Still, under a dark sky you can explore it . To the eye the pale luminous trail of light arcing through the sky on a dark, moonless night does…
AR2835: Islands in the Photosphere
Awash in a sea of incandescent plasma and anchored in strong magnetic fields , sunspots are planet-sized dark islands in the solar photosphere , the bright surface of the Sun.…
Perseverance Selfie with Ingenuity
On sol 46 (April 6, 2021) the Perseverance rover held out a robotic arm to take its first selfie on Mars . The WATSON camera at the end of the arm was designed to take close-ups…
Simulation: Formation of the First Stars
How did the first stars form? To help find out, the SPHINX computer simulation of star formation in the very early universe was created, some results of which are shown in the…
Orion Nebula: The Hubble View
Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination like the Orion Nebula . Also known as M42 , the nebula's glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an immense interstellar…
A Paper Moon Solar Eclipse
It may look like a paper Moon . Sailing past a canvas Sun . But those are not cardboard clouds. And it's not make believe. The featured picture of an orange colored sky is real --…
The Dancing Auroras of Saturn
What drives auroras on Saturn? To help find out, scientists have sorted through hundreds of infrared images of Saturn taken by the Cassini spacecraft for other purposes, trying to…
Pixels in the Sun
These two panels, composed of video frames made with a safe solar telescope and hydrogen alpha filter, show remarkably sharp details on the solar disk and giant prominences along…
Andromeda in a Single Shot
How far can you see? The Andromeda Galaxy , 2.5 million light years away, is the most distant object easily seen by the unaided eye. Other denizens of the night sky, like stars,…
Messier 99
Grand design spiral galaxy Messier 99 looks majestic on a truly cosmic scale. This recently processed full galaxy portrait stretches over 70,000 light-years across M99. The sharp…
STARFORGE: A Star Formation Simulation
How do stars form? Most form in giant molecular clouds located in the central disk of a galaxy. The process is started, influenced, and limited by the stellar winds, jets, high…
HD 163296: Jet from a Star in Formation
How are jets created during star formation? No one is sure , although recent images of the young star system HD 163296 are quite illuminating. The central star in the featured…
The Tadpole Galaxy from Hubble
Why does this galaxy have such a long tail? In this stunning vista , based on image data from the Hubble Legacy Archive , distant galaxies form a dramatic backdrop for disrupted…
Sunrise Solstice over Stonehenge
Today the Sun reaches its northernmost point in planet Earth's sky. Called a solstice , many cultures mark this date as a change of seasons -- from spring to summer in Earth 's…
Viewing discoveries from 13 July 2021 through 20 June 2021.