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.
Lunokhod 1: Moon Robot
On November 17, 1970 the Soviet Luna 17 spacecraft landed the first roving remote-controlled robot on the Moon . Known as Lunokhod 1, it weighed just under 2,000 pounds and was…
Mare Orientale
Looking like a target ring bull's-eye, the Mare Orientale is one of the most striking large scale lunar features. Located on the Moon 's extreme western edge, this impact basin is…
Lasers in Eta Carinae
Have you heard about the great LASER light show in the sky? Well, nobody had until it was announced just yesterday by a team led by K. Davidson ( U. Minnesota ) and S. Johansson (…
The Cepheids of M100
Can this blinking star tell us how fast the universe is expanding? Many astronomers also believe it may also tell us the age of the universe! The photographed “ Cepheid variable ”…
M100 and the Expanding Universe
The distance to the swirling grand design spiral M100 is causing quite a stir among astronomers. Many believe that the Hubble Space Telescope 's recent distance measurement to…
Local Group Galaxy NGC 205
The Milky Way Galaxy is not alone. It is part of a gathering of about 25 galaxies known as the Local Group . Members include the Great Andromeda Galaxy (M31), M32 , M33 , the…
Mercury Astronauts and a Redstone
Space suited project Mercury astronauts John H. Glenn , Virgil I. Grissom , and Alan B. Shepard Jr. (left to right) are pictured here posing in front of a Redstone rocket in this…
Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy M32
Being the largest galaxy around can sometimes make you popular. Pictured is M31's companion galaxy M32 . M31 , the Andromeda galaxy, is the largest galaxy in our Local Group of…
The Toby Jug Nebula
Is the only thing unusual about this nebula its shape? Pictured above is the IC 2220 - the Toby Jug Nebula - a reflection nebula surrounding a normal red giant star. Reflection…
Symbiotic Star System R Aquarii
Sometimes stars work together to create a spectacular display. Such is the case with the binary star system R Aquarii - a “symbiotic” star system. Here two stars, a variable giant…
The X-ray Timing Explorer
Launched Saturday on a Delta rocket , the X-ray Timing Explorer (XTE) will watch the sky for rapid changes in X-rays . XTE carries three separate X-ray telescopes. The…
The X-Ray Sky
What if you could see X-rays ? If you could, the night sky would be a strange and unfamiliar place. X-rays are about 1,000 times more energetic than visible light photons and are…
Shuttle Engine Blast
The Space Shuttle Discovery 's orbital maneuvering system (OMS) engine firing produced this dramatic flare as it cruised “upside down” in low Earth orbit. Discovery was named for…
The X-ray Sources of M31
Just like our own Milky Way Galaxy , the nearest major galaxy M31 has many star systems spewing high energy radiation . High energy X-radiation is visible to certain satellites in…
LMC X-1: A Black Hole Candidate
The strongest source of X-rays in the Large Magellanic Cloud originates from an unusually energetic binary star system . This strong source, dubbed LMC X-1, is thought to be a…
NGC 4361: Galaxy Shaped Planetary Nebula
Glowing in the red light emitted by hydrogen atoms , the planetary nebula NGC 4361 is pictured above. The nebula itself is formed by the outer layers of gas shrugged off by the…
NGC 6240: When Galaxies Collide
Sometimes even galaxies can suffer a fatal attraction. Here gravity causes two galaxies to collide in a spectacular display of energetic gas , dust , and light. When galaxies…
Nova Cygni 1992
In 1992 a tremendous explosion occurred in the constellation of Cygnus . Dubbed Nova Cygni 1992, this event most probably occurred in an accretion disk binary system . Astronomers…
Accretion Disk Binary System
Our Sun is unusual in that it is alone - most stars occur in multiple or binary systems . In a binary system, the higher mass star will evolve faster and will eventually become a…
Earth Rise
During the 1968 Christmas season Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders flew the Apollo 8 command module From the Earth to the Moon and back (launched Dec. 21, achieved 10…
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…
Viewing discoveries from 13 January 1996 through 21 December 1995.