Browse NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day archive by date and media: Archive Discoveries
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Cyclones at Jupiter's North Pole
Why are there so many cyclones around the north pole of Jupiter? The topic is still being researched. NASA's robotic Juno mission orbiting Jupiter took data in 2018 that was used…
Galaxies in Space
The plane of our Milky Way galaxy extends beyond the limb of planet Earth in this space age exposure captured by astronaut Don Pettit. His camera , with low light and long…
Planetary Nebula Abell 7
Very faint planetary nebula Abell 7 is about 1,800 light-years distant. It lies just south of Orion in planet Earth's skies toward the constellation Lepus, The Hare . Surrounded…
Starburst Galaxy Messier 94
Beautiful island universe Messier 94 lies a mere 15 million light-years distant in the northern constellation of the hunting dogs, Canes Venatici . A popular target for…
Seven Sisters versus California
On the right, dressed in blue, is the Pleiades . Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45 , the Pleiades is one of the brightest and most easily visible open clusters on the sky.…
A Quadruple Alignment over Italy
Why does this Moon look so unusual? A key reason is its vivid red color. The color is caused by the deflection of blue light by Earth's atmosphere -- the same reason that the…
Blue Ghost on the Moon
There's a new lander on the Moon. Yesterday Firefly Aerospace 's Blue Ghost executed the first-ever successful commercial lunar landing. During its planned 60-day mission, Blue…
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The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in Light and Sound
Have you heard about the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field? Either way, you've likely not heard about it like this -- please run your cursor over the featured image and listen! The Hubble…
Blue Ghost to the Moon
With spacecraft thrusters at top center, the rugged surface of the Moon lies below the Blue Ghost lander in this space age video frame. The view of the lunar far side was captured…
Athena to the Moon
Planet Earth hangs in the background of this space age selfie. The snapshot was captured by the IM-2 Nova-C lander Athena , just after stage separation following its February 26…
Open Star Clusters M35 and NGC 2158
Framed in this single, starry, telescopic field of view are two open star clusters, M35 and NGC 2158. Located within the boundaries of the constellation Gemini, they do appear to…
Einstein Ring Surrounds Nearby Galaxy Center
Do you see the ring? If you look very closely at the center of the featured galaxy NGC 6505 , a ring becomes evident. It is the gravity of NGC 6505 , the nearby ( z = 0.042)…
M41: The Little Beehive Star Cluster
Why are there so many bright blue stars? Stars are usually born in clusters , and the brightest and most massive of these stars typically glow blue. Less-bright, non-blue stars…
Light Pillar over Erupting Etna
Can a lava flow extend into the sky? No, but light from the lava flow can. One effect is something quite unusual -- a volcanic light pillar . More typically, light pillars are…
Saturn in Infrared from Cassini
Saturn looks slightly different in infrared light. Bands of clouds show great structure, including long stretching storms . Also quite striking in infrared is the unusual…
Rima Hyginus
Rima Hyginus is a spectacular fissure , some 220 kilometers long, found near the center of the lunar near side . Easy to spot in telescopic views of the Moon, it stretches top…
Hubble's Andromeda Galaxy Mosaic
The largest photomosaic ever assembled from Hubble Space Telescope image data is a panoramic view of our neighboring spiral Andromeda Galaxy. With 600 overlapping frames assembled…
Messier 87
Enormous elliptical galaxy Messier 87 is about 50 million light-years away. Also known as NGC 4486, the giant galaxy holds trillions of stars compared to the mere billions of…
HH 30: A Star System with Planets Now Forming
How do stars and planets form? New clues have been found in the protoplanetary system Herbig-Haro 30 by the James Webb Space Telescope in concert with Hubble and the Earth-bound…
Thor's Helmet versus the Seagull
Seen as a seagull and a duck, these nebulae are not the only cosmic clouds to evoke images of flight. But both are winging their way across this broad celestial landscape,…
SpaceX Rocket Launch Plume over California
What's happened to the sky? Last Monday, the photogenic launch plume from a SpaceX rocket launch created quite a spectacle over parts of southern California and Arizona . Looking…
Perijove 11: Passing Jupiter
Here comes Jupiter. NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno is continuing on its highly elongated orbits around our Solar System's largest planet. The featured video is from perijove 11 in…
Parhelia at Abisko
Three suns seem to hug the horizon in this otherworldly winterscape. But the evocative scene was captured during a February 3rd snowmobile exploration of the mountainous region…
A Cosmic Rose: NGC 2237 in Monoceros
The Rosette Nebula, NGC 2237, is not the only cosmic cloud of gas and dust to evoke the imagery of flowers , but it is probably the most famous. At the edge of a large molecular…
Viewing discoveries from 9 March 2025 through 14 February 2025.