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.
Asteroid 9969 Braille
NASA probe Deep Space 1 zoomed past asteroid 9969 Braille last week as it continued to test its new ion drive in the inner Solar System . The flyby was the closest approach a…
The Surface of Titan
If sailing the hydrocarbon seas of Titan , beware of gasoline rain. Such might be a travel advisory issued next millennium for adventurers visiting Titan , the largest moon of…
The Vela Supernova Remnant Expands
The explosion is over but the consequences continue. About eleven thousand years ago a star in the constellation of Vela exploded, creating a strange point of light briefly…
Regulus Occulted
On May 21, viewed from the continental US, a star winked out as it passed behind the dark limb of the first-quarter Moon . The star, Regulus , is hotter than the sun, about 69…
Walking in Space
Pictured above is the first american astronaut to walk in space: Edward White . White is seen floating outside the Gemini 4 capsule in 1965. The term spacewalk is deceiving since…
X-Ray Triple Jet
Recorded on July 7, 1998 , this animation using X-ray images of the Sun shows an amazing event - three nearly simultaneous jets connected with solar active regions. The two frames…
The Sea of Tranquillity: 5 Seconds To Impact
On February 20th, 1965, the Ranger 8 spacecraft crashed into the Moon . Rapidly transmitting a series of pictures to ground controllers, its camera recorded this one at an…
Hydrogen Blob N88A in the Small Magellanic Cloud
The bright blob of hydrogen gas cataloged as N88A is seen at the right. It measures a mere 3 light years across. Emerging from the cool, dusty interstellar medium in a nearby…
Asia at Night
This is what Asia looks like at night! Can you find your favorite Asian city? Although not all of Asia is shown, city lights might make this task possible. The above picture is…
Chandra X-ray Telescope
Wrapped in protective blankets and mounted atop an Inertial Upper Stage (IUS) rocket, the Chandra X-ray Telescope is seen in this wide-angle view before launch snuggled into the…
Noctilucent Clouds
Sometimes it's night on the ground but day in the air. As the Earth rotates to eclipse the Sun, sunset rises up from the ground. Therefore, at sunset on the ground, sunlight still…
The Cygnus Loop
The shockwave from a 20,000 year-old supernova in the constellation of Cygnus supernova explosion is still expanding into interstellar space. The collision of this fast moving…
Infrared Saturn
This delightfully detailed false color image of Saturn was earmarked to celebrate the 8th anniversary of the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope . The picture is a combination of…
A Martian Valley
This tantalizing close-up detail of a network of martian valleys was recorded from orbit this April by Mars Global Surveyor's camera. Water may once have flowed here but now sand…
Cosmic Collisions in a Galaxy Cluster
Hundreds of galaxies appear as faint smudges of light in this Hubble Space Telescope picture of galaxy cluster MS1054-03. Eight billion light-years away , the cluster is among the…
Galactic Supernova Remnant IC 443
About 8000 years ago, a star in our Galaxy exploded. Ancient humans might have noticed the supernova as a temporary star, but modern humans can see the expanding shell of gas even…
Moon Rocket
On July 20, 1969 , only four days after leaving planet Earth 250,000 miles behind them, Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the moon - the first humans to reach another celestial body.…
NGC 3372: The Great Nebula in Carina
In one of the brightest parts of the Milky Way lies a nebula where some of the oddest things occur. NGC 3372, known as the Great Nebula in Carina , is home to massive stars and…
Jupiter from Voyager
This picture of the planet Jupiter was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft as it passed the planet in 1979. Jupiter , a gas giant planet with no solid surface, is the largest planet…
Rockets and Robert Goddard
Robert H. Goddard , one of the founding fathers of modern rocketry, was born in Worcester Massachusetts in 1882. As a 16 year old, Goddard read H.G. Wells' science fiction classic…
Solar Surfin'
The sun's corona is a tenuous outer atmosphere composed of streams of energetic charged particles, but it is only easily seen from Earth during a total solar eclipse . For…
Charles P. Conrad, Jr. 1930-1999
Known for his sense of humor and infectious grin, Charles P. “Pete” Conrad , as commander of the Apollo 12 mission, was the third person to walk on the moon. Not a tall man,…
Moon, Planets, and Rocket Trails
Are you an early riser ? Over the last month or so, the bright planets Jupiter and Saturn have come to adorn eastern skies before sunrise . In fact, astro photographer Joe Orman…
The Flame Nebula in Infrared
What lights up the Flame Nebula? Fifteen hundred light years away towards the constellation of Orion lies a nebula which, from its glow and dark dust lanes, appears like a…
Viewing discoveries from 5 August 1999 through 13 July 1999.