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.
Impact On Europa
This bull's-eye pattern marks the impact of a mountain-sized comet or asteroid on the icy surface of Jupiter's moon Europa . Recorded by the Galileo spacecraft in April of this…
Mars Rocks, Sojourner Rolls
This sharp color image featuring Mars rock Yogi and the rolling Sojourner robot shows off Yogi's startling two-toned surface. Yogi appears to be leaning into the prevailing winds…
Resolving Mira
Most stars appear only as points of light. Recently, Betelgeuse became the second star, after our Sun , to have it surface resolved. Now add Mira to the list. Mira A is a red…
Sher 25: A Pending Supernova?
No supernova has ever been predicted - yet. These dramatic stellar explosions that destroy stars, that create and disperse the elements that compose people and planets , that…
A Perseid Meteor
Tonight the Perseid Meteor Shower reaches its maximum. Grains of rocky ice will streak across the sky as they evaporate during entry into Earth's atmosphere . These ice chips were…
Nebulosity in Sagittarius
What causes the colors in this beautiful nebulosity in Sagittarius ? Dubbed NGC 6589 and NGC 6590, the colors of this nebulosity, are caused by gas and dust . The blue color of…
The Hydra Cluster of Galaxies
You are flying through space and come to ... the Hydra Cluster of Galaxies. Listed as Abell 1060, the Hydra Cluster contains well over 100 bright galaxies. Clusters of galaxies…
White Oval Clouds on Jupiter
What are those white ovals all over Jupiter? Storms! Jupiter 's clouds can swirl rapidly in raised high-pressure storm systems that circle the planet. The above pictured white…
Jupiter's Ring Halo
Why do small particles hover around Jupiter's rings? These particles form a previously unknown ring halo , recently discovered by the robot spacecraft Galileo currently orbiting…
Hale-Bopp from Indian Cove
Good cameras were able to obtain impressive photographs of Comet Hale-Bopp when at its brightest earlier this year. In the above photograph taken April 5th, Comet Hale-Bopp was…
M101: The Pinwheel Galaxy
Why do many galaxies appear as spirals ? A striking example is M101, shown above , whose relatively close distance of about 22 million light years allow it to be studied in some…
A Rusty Sunset on Mars
On Mars, sunsets can appear salmon pink. The unusual color is partly due to rust : oxidized iron from Martian dust circulating in the Martian atmosphere . Clouds appear in the…
The Cygnus Loop
15,000 years ago a star in the constellation of Cygnus exploded -- the shockwave from this supernova explosion is still expanding into interstellar space! The collision of this…
The Cat's Eye Nebula
Three thousand light years away, a dying star throws off shells of glowing gas. This image from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals “The Cat's Eye Nebula” to be one of the most…
A Martian Sunset
You've had a hard day rolling past Martian rocks , so now just relax your APXS and enjoy the Martian sunset. The above pictures taken by Mars Pathfinder highlight how clouds vary…
Behind CL1358+62: A New Farthest Object
What if we could see back to the beginning of the universe? At one tenth the universe's present age , we might see galaxies forming . But what did galaxies look like when they…
Eagle Castle
What lights up this castle of star formation? The familiar Eagle Nebula glows much like a neon sign , but in many colors at once. The above photograph is a composite of three of…
Strange Rocks on Mars
The rocks on Mars tell us stories about their past. To decipher these stories, a scientist must become a detective , searching for clues and fitting them with theories. The above…
Help Aldebaran Map the Moon
Turn on your camcorder, go outside, and become an astronomer. How? . Tomorrow morning, our Moon will pass directly in front of Aldebaran , the brightest star in this picture and…
A Very Large Array of Radio Telescopes
Pictured above is one of the world's premiere radio astronomical observatories: The Very Large Array (VLA). Each antenna dish is as big as a house (25 meters across) and mounted…
M81 in True Color
Here's is a spiral galaxy in true colors. Previously, M81 was shown in two colors only, but M81's real colors are just as dramatic. In the above picture , note how blue the spiral…
Stellar Laboratories in the LMC
Stars are evolving in the Large Magellanic Clouds (LMC). This is particularly evident in the above close-up of the LMC 's edge, which appears about as large as the full moon.…
Mars Pathfinder's Landing Site
Where is Mars Pathfinder ? Follow the arrow in the above picture taken by the Viking Orbiter in 1976. From the surface Mars appears covered with rocks, but from orbit Mars appears…
A Hale-Bopp Triple Crown
It was truly a busy sky. In one of the more spectacular photos yet submitted to Astronomy Picture of the Day , Don Cooke of Lyme, New Hampshire caught the Sun , Moon , Earth ,…
Viewing discoveries from 15 August 1997 through 23 July 1997.