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.
Ice Clouds over Mars
Mars has clouds too. The above true color image taken in August by Mars Pathfinder shows clouds of ice high in the Martian atmosphere . Unlike Earth's atmosphere which is composed…
Impact! 65 Million Years Ago
What killed the dinosaurs? Their sudden disappearance 65 million years ago, along with about 70 percent of all species then living on Earth, is known as the K-T event…
Floating Free in Space
NASA astronauts can float free in space without any connection to a spaceship. Here astronaut Bruce McCandless maneuvers outside the Space Shuttle Challenger by firing nitrogen…
Mars Pathfinder Super Pan
Spectacular details of rover tracks, wind-driven soil, and textured rocks on the Martian surface fill this color mosaic . The view is north-northeast from the Sagan Memorial…
Hale-Bopp and the North American Nebula
Comet Hale-Bopp 's recent encounter with the inner Solar System allowed many breath-taking pictures. Above, Comet Hale-Bopp was photographed on March 8th in the constellation of…
The Brightest Star Yet Known
Star light, star bright, a new brightest star has been discovered in the night. This new brightest star is so far away and so obscured by dust , however, that it took the Hubble…
Europe at Night
This is what Europe looks like at night! Can you find your favorite European city? Although not all of Europe is shown, city lights might make this task possible. Continental…
Surveyor At Mars
Mars Global Surveyor achieved Martian orbit on September 11 and began aerobraking into its final mapping orbit, a process that will take until March next year. Anticipating the…
Worlds of a Distant Sun: 47 Ursae Majoris b
In the last few years, observational astronomy has given humanity evidence of the existence of worlds beyond the solar system. Solar-type stars are now inferred to harbor planets…
In the Center of 30 Doradus
In the center of 30 Doradus lies a huge cluster of the largest, hottest, most massive stars known. The center of this cluster, known as R136 , is boxed in the upper right portion…
Comet Halley and the Milky Way
Comet Halley was photographed superposed in front of the disk of our Milky Way Galaxy in 1986 by the Kuiper Airborne Observatory . Comet Halley is the bright white streak near…
Colliding Supernova Remnants
When a massive star exhausts its nuclear fuel it explodes . This stellar detonation, a supernova , propels vast amounts of starstuff outwards, initially at millions of miles per…
Maria Mitchell Inspires a Generation
“Do not look at stars as bright spots only - try to take in the vastness of the universe.” Today is the 150th anniversary of the day Maria Mitchell swept the sky with her…
Half Dome Rock on Mars
Who ordered the Martian pizza? As Mars Pathfinder and its mobile robot Sojourner continue to explore Mars , new and interesting rocks are being discovered, even though the primary…
Jupiter And Family
This composite image features classic portraits of members of one of the Solar System's most prominent families - Jupiter and its four large “Galilean” moons. Starting from the…
A Wolf Rayet Star Bubble
What's a Wolf-Rayet star, and how did it create that spherical bubble and sweeping arc? A Wolf-Rayet star is a star that originated with a mass over 40 times that of our Sun . An…
The Ecliptic Plane
The Plane of the Ecliptic is illustrated in this Clementine star tracker camera image which reveals (from right to left) the Moon lit by Earthshine, the Sun's corona rising over…
A Lonely Neutron Star
How massive can a star get without imploding into a black hole? These limits are being tested by the discovery of a lone neutron star in space. Observations by the Hubble Space…
T Pyxidis: Recurrent Nova
What happens when a thermonuclear blast occurs on the surface of a white dwarf star? Over the years astronomers have watched (at a safe distance ...) as, 6,000 light years from…
Moon Occults Saturn
Many stargazers in the U. S. were able to watch a lovely lunar occultation early last Thursday morning as a bright Moon passed in front of Saturn . Using a 1.2 meter reflector ,…
A Martian Autumn Begins
Today is the first day of Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere of Planet Earth. The Autumnal Equinox occured yesterday at 7:56 pm EDT as the Sun crossed the celestial equator from…
Antares and Rho Ophiuchi
Why is the sky near Antares and Rho Ophiuchi so colorful? The colors result from a mixture of objects and processes. Fine dust illuminated from the front by starlight produces…
Looking Down on Saturn
This picture of Saturn could not have been taken from Earth . No Earth based picture could possibly view the night side of Saturn and the corresponding shadow cast across Saturn's…
The Clouds of Jupiter
What makes the colors in Jupiter's clouds ? With a mean temperature of 120 degrees Kelvin (-153 degrees Celsius) and a composition dominated by hydrogen (about 90%), and helium…
Viewing discoveries from 13 October 1997 through 20 September 1997.