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.
Apollo 12 Visits Surveyor 3
Explanation : Apollo 12 was the second mission to land humans on the Moon . The landing site was picked to be near the location of Surveyor 3, a robot spacecraft that had landed…
Gamma Ray Bursts from the Unknown
Explanation : Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) pose one of the greatest mysteries of modern astronomy. About once a day, the gamma-ray sky lights up with a spectacular explosion. No one…
Fliers Around the Blue Snowball Nebula
Explanation : Planetary nebulae are strange. First, they are gas clouds and have nothing to do with our Solar System 's planets. Next, although hundreds of planetary nebulae have…
The Blue Snowball Planetary Nebula
Explanation : Will the Sun one day look like - a blue snowball? Maybe! The Blue Snowball is a planetary nebula - and in 5 billion years the Sun will throw off its outer layers and…
Europa Full Face
Explanation : What mysteries might be solved by peering into this crystal ball? This crystal ball is quite unusual because it is actually a moon of Jupiter , the crystals are…
Fractal Interstellar Dust Up-Close
Explanation : Our universe is a very dusty place. Dust usually shows its presence by blocking out light emitted from stars or nebula behind it, sometimes creating the illusion of…
Unusual M82: The Cigar Galaxy
Explanation : Something strange happened to this galaxy, but what? M82 is a nearby galaxy in the group of galaxies dominated by itself, M81 , and NGC 3077 . M82 is thought by some…
A Quasar in the Gamma-Ray Sky
Explanation : The bright object in the center of the false color image above is quasar 3C279 viewed in gamma-rays , photons with more than 40 million times the energy of visible…
The Leonid Meteor Shower (Tonight)
Explanation : Tonight thousands of icy rocks will hurl toward Earth in a fascinating display of light called the Leonid Meteor Shower . There is little danger - few will reach the…
Searching For Solar Systems
Explanation : Observational astronomy has recently provided evidence of the existence of massive Jupiter-sized planets orbiting distant suns, protoplanetary disks of gas and dust…
Supernova Remnant and Neutron Star
Explanation : A massive star ends life as a supernova, blasting its outer layers back to interstellar space. The spectacular death explosion is initiated by the collapse of what…
Seven Jets from Comet Hale-Bopp
Explanation : Comet Hale-Bopp is turning out to be quite unusual. One reason is the great amount of jet activity at such a large distance from the Sun . In the above false-color…
Comet Hale-Bopp Passes M14
Explanation : Comet Hale-Bopp continues its slow trek across the night sky, and can now be seen superposed near the bright globular cluster M14 . Will Comet Hale-Bopp become as…
NGC 4755: A Jewel Box of Stars
Explanation : The great variety of star colors in this open cluster underlie it's name: The Jewel Box. The bright central star Kappa Crucis is red, in contrast to the many blue…
Columbia Launches
Explanation : Rocket engines blazing, the Space Shuttle Columbia arcs into Florida's morning sky after lifting off from pad 39-A at Kennedy Space Center . Seen here in January of…
Surveyor Hops
Explanation : This panorama of the cratered lunar surface was constructed from images returned by the US Surveyor 6 lander. Surveyor 6 was not the first spacecraft to accomplish a…
A Solar Corona Ejection
Explanation : The Sun would not be a nice place to spend the summer. One reason, besides the extreme heat, is that explosions are common there . In the above picture, magnetic…
Fields of Minerals on Ganymede
Explanation : What treasures lie on the surface of Ganymede ? Last week, NASA released a map of Jupiter's largest moon made by the Galileo Orbiter highlighting ice and minerals…
Elliptical Galaxy NGC 4881 in Coma
Explanation : Elliptical galaxies are unlike spiral galaxies and hence unlike our own Milky Way Galaxy . The giant elliptical galaxy named NGC 4881 on the upper left lies at the…
The Coma Cluster of Galaxies
Explanation : Almost every object in the above photograph is a galaxy. The Coma Cluster of Galaxies pictured is one of the densest clusters known - it contains thousands of…
The Martian Spring
Explanation : As spring comes to the northern latitudes of Mars , increased solar heating brings warmth and a change in the weather. The winds produced by the large temperature…
Surveyor Night Launch
Explanation : In early November of 1967, a dramatic night launch of an Atlas Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral lofted the successful Surveyor 6 spacecraft toward the Moon. The…
Spiral Galaxy NGC 253 Almost Sideways
Explanation : NGC 253 is a normal spiral galaxy seen here almost sideways. It is the largest member of the Sculptor Group of Galaxies , the nearest group to our own Local Group of…
Spiral Galaxy NGC 3628 Edge On
Explanation : This is what a spiral galaxy looks like sideways. This view of NGC 3628 nearly resembles our own Milky Way Galaxy , which is also known to be a spiral . The dark…
Viewing discoveries from 24 November 1996 through 1 November 1996.