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.
Welcome to Planet Earth
Welcome to Planet Earth , the third planet from a star named the Sun . The Earth is shaped like a sphere and composed mostly of rock . Over 70 percent of the Earth's surface is…
Orion's Horsehead Nebula
The Horsehead Nebula is one of the most famous nebulae on the sky. It is visible as the black indentation to the red emission nebula seen just to the right of center of the above…
Moving Echoes Around SN 1987A
Yesterday's image highlighted reflective rings of light emitted by a supernova explosion. Today's pictures , taken over a year apart, highlight how these echoes are seen to move…
Echos of Supernova 1987A
Can you find Supernova 1987a ? It's not hard - it occurred in the center of the bulls-eye pattern. Although this stellar detonation was seen more than a decade ago, light from it…
The Antennae Galaxies
A ground-based telescopic view (left) of the collision between the galaxies NGC4038 and NGC4039 reveals long arcing insect-like “antennae” of luminous matter flung from the scene…
The Butterfly Planetary Nebula
As stars age, they throw off their outer layers. Sometimes a highly symmetric gaseous planetary nebula is created, as is the case in M2-9 , also called the Butterfly. Most…
Spiral Eddies On Planet Earth
Can you identify this stellar nebula ? How many light-years from Earth did you say? Looking like a twisting cloud of gas and dust between the stars this wispy nebulosity is…
The Heart Of NGC 4261
What evil lurks in the hearts of galaxies? This Hubble Space Telescope picture of the center of the nearby elliptical galaxy NGC 4261 tells one dramatic tale . The gas and dust in…
The Pleiades Star Cluster
It is the most famous star cluster on the sky. The Pleiades can be seen without binoculars from even the depths of a light-polluted city . Also known as the Seven Sisters and M45…
Mars: A Mist In Mariner Valley
An icy mist and late afternoon clouds cover much of this section of Valles Marineris on Mars . The Valles Marineris or Mariner Valley is a huge canyon system about 2,000 miles…
Cassini To Venus
NASA's Saturn Explorer Cassini with ESA's Titan Probe Huygens attached successfully rocketed into the skies early yesterday morning. The mighty Titan 4B Centaur rocket is seen…
Cold Wind From The Boomerang Nebula
A cold wind blows from the central star of the Boomerang Nebula. Seen here in a false color image of dust reflected starlight, the nebula lies about 5,000 light-years away. The…
Venus On The Horizon
The month of October features a sky full of planets, including Venus as the brilliant evening star. Besides the sun and moon, Venus is the brightest object visible in Earth's sky.…
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…
Viewing discoveries from 26 October 1997 through 3 October 1997.