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.
Uranus' Moon Miranda
NASA's robot spacecraft Voyager 2 passed the planet Uranus and its moons in 1986. While the cloud tops of Uranus proved to be rather featureless, the surface of Miranda , the…
Prometheus, Pandora and Saturn's F Ring
The third and fourth innermost moons of Saturn were unexpectedly discovered to be gravitational “shepards.” The inner moon Prometheus and the outer moon Pandora use their…
Summer at the South Pole
December 22 marks the Winter Solstice - the beginning of winter in the Earth's northern hemisphere, and the first day of summer in the south! This view of Earth's southern…
Hot Stars in the Trifid Nebula
In the center of the glowing red gas on the Trifid Nebula lies an open cluster of young hot stars . The energetic light from these stars strikes hydrogen atoms in the surrounding…
A Galaxy Gravitational Lens
Sometimes it takes a keen eye to see a good mirage. Around the center of the red galaxy image in the above photograph lie four blue “smudges.” Each smudge is actually a different…
Albert Einstein: 1879 - 1955
Albert Einstein is considered by many the greatest astrophysicist. He is pictured here in the Swiss Patent Office where he did much of his great work. Einstein 's many visionary…
M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy
The Whirlpool Galaxy is frequently given as an example of a galaxy with classic spiral design. At only 15 million light years distant, M 51, also cataloged as NGC 5194, is also…
The Space Shuttle Docks with Mir
Hundreds of kilometers above the Earth 's surface, the United States Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian Space Station Mir . The photograph was taken by Nikolai Budarin…
Hawai`i
Aloha! With the graceful arc of the Earth's limb in the background, the entire Hawaiian Island archipelago is visible in this stunning photo taken by the astronauts onboard the…
M64: The Sleeping Beauty Galaxy
The Sleeping Beauty galaxy may appear peaceful at first sight but it is actually tossing and turning. In an unexpected twist, recent observations have shown that the center of…
An Atlas Centaur Rocket Launches
Atlas Centaur rockets have launched over 75 successful unmanned missions. These missions included the Surveyor series - the first vehicles to make soft landings on the Moon ,…
A Delta Rocket Launches
A Delta rocket is seen being launched in 1988. In use since 1960, Delta rockets have been launched successfully over 200 times. Scientific satellites placed into orbit by a Delta…
Shapley 1: An Annular Planetary Nebula
This strange structure is what can result when a normal star runs out of nuclear fuel in its core. At that time, the center condenses into a white dwarf while the outer…
NGC 5189: A Strange Planetary Nebula
After a Sun -like star can no longer support fusion in its core, the center condenses into a white dwarf while the outer atmospheric layers are expelled into space and appear as a…
Apollo 14 Deploys ALSEP
After the lunar module of Apollo 14 set down on the Moon , Astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell deployed the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) and collected…
Apollo 14 on the Moon
The jewel-like glare from a brilliant sun reflects off the lunar module of the Apollo 14 mission to the Moon as it rests on the lunar surface in February 1971. Astronauts Alan…
Descent To Jupiter
Hours ago , at about 5:00 pm EST (2200 GMT) December 7, Galileo's descent probe slammed into Jupiter's atmosphere . Above is an artist's vision of the probe's planned descent from…
Galileo's Jupiter Probe
Today, at about 5:00 pm EST, this 750 pound probe from NASA's robot spacecraft Galileo will plummet into Jupiter becoming the first probe to fly through the atmosphere of a gas…
24 Hours from Jupiter
NASA's robot spacecraft Galileo began its long voyage to Jupiter more than six years and 2.3 billion miles ago. About 24 hours from now it will reach its destination. On arrival…
The Swirling Center of NGC 4261
What evil lurks in the hearts of galaxies? The above picture by the Hubble Space Telescope of the center of the nearby galaxy NGC 4261 tells us one dramatic tale . Here gas and…
GL 229B: An Elusive Brown Dwarf?
What type of matter makes up most of the universe? This question is arguably the most perplexing astronomical mystery of our time. A leading candidate is a type of dim, low mass…
An X-ray Hot Supernova in M81
In 1993, a star in the galaxy M 81 exploded. Above is a picture of the hot material ejected by this supernova explosion. The picture was taken in X-rays with the Advanced…
Lightning Below
In May of 1993, the Space Shuttle Columbia orbited the Earth carrying the Spacelab Deutsche 2 (SL-D2) science module and spacelab tunnel seen here riding in the shuttle's payload…
51 Pegasi: A New Planet Discovered
Are we alone in the universe? Do other stars have planets too? Humanity took one step closer to answering these questions in October 1995 when it was announced that the star 51…
Viewing discoveries from 24 December 1995 through 1 December 1995.