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.
A Halo Around the Moon
Have you ever seen a halo around the Moon? This fairly common sight occurs when high thin clouds containing millions of tiny ice crystals cover much of the sky. Each ice crystal…
A Presidential Panorama of Mars
Scroll right to unfold one of the great panoramas ever taken on the surface of Mars . For best viewing, click and hold the right arrow icon at the bottom of your browser window.…
Surveyor Slides
“Safe!” In September 1967 ( during regular season play ), the Surveyor 5 lander actually slid several feet while making a successful soft landing on the Moon's Mare…
X-Ray Ring Around SN1987A
This false-color image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory reveals a one light-year diameter ring of hot, ten million degree plasma. It is one of the most detailed X-ray images of…
NGC 3314: When Galaxies Overlap
Can this be a spiral galaxy? In fact, NGC 3314 consists of two large spiral galaxies which just happen to almost exactly line-up. The foreground spiral is viewed nearly face-on,…
Dog-Bone Shaped Asteroid 216 Kleopatra
An asteroid the size of New Jersey that orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter has been discovered to have an unusual dog-bone shape. Asteroid 216 Kleopatra , recently mapped…
The Race to Reveal Our Universe
A race is underway to understand our universe through background radiation produced during its infancy. Observationally, increasingly accurate balloon experiments are pressing to…
Jupiter's Moons Thebe, Amalthea, and Metis
The robot spacecraft Galileo in orbit around Jupiter has recently photographed the inner moons of Jupiter in greater detail than ever before. These pictures of Thebe , Amalthea ,…
A Green Flash from the Sun
Many think it is just a myth. Others think it is true but its cause isn't known. Adventurers pride themselves on having seen it. It's a green flash from the Sun . The truth is the…
The Heart Of Orion
Newborn stars lie at at the heart of the the Orion Nebula , hidden from view by the dust and gas of the giant Orion Molecular Cloud number 1 (OMC-1). Sensitive to invisible…
Planets In The Sun
Today , all five naked-eye planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) plus the Moon and the Sun will at least approximately line-up. As viewed from planet Earth, they will be…
Planets Above The Clouds
Clouds scatter the faint orange rays of the setting sun in the foreground of this breathtaking photograph from the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii . Taken on April 7th, this skyscape…
BOOMERANG Images The Early Universe
Drifting through the stratosphere above Antarctica in late 1998 , the balloon -borne BOOMERANG telescope peered into the cosmos at millimeter wavelengths. The blotchy structures…
An Iridium Flash Sunset
Did you see that flash? Lasting only about 15 seconds, it's possible that nobody you ask can confirm it, but what you might have seen is sunlight reflecting off an orbiting…
The North America Nebula
Here's a familiar shape in an unfamiliar location! This emission nebula is famous partly because it resembles Earth's continent of North America. To the right of the North America…
The Small Cloud of Magellan (SMC)
Almost unknown to casual observers in the northern hemisphere , the southern sky contains two diffuse wonders known as the Magellanic Clouds . The Magellanic Clouds are small…
3D View Of Jupiter's Clouds
Every day is a cloudy day on Jupiter , the Solar System's reigning gas giant. This 3-dimensional visualization presents a simplified model view from between Jovian cloud decks…
Leonid Glowworm
Recent Leonid meteor showers have been rich in bright fireball meteors which leave lingering trails stretching across the night sky. These trails, or persistent trains , are…
Calderas And Cliffs Near Io's South Pole
Braving intense radiation belts , the Galileo spacecraft once again flew past the surface of Jupiter's moon Io (sounds like EYE-oh ) on February 22. Combining high resolution…
Filaments In The Cygnus Loop
Subtle and delicate in appearance, these are filaments of shocked interstellar gas -- part of the expanding blast wave from a violent stellar explosion. Recorded in November 1997…
Layers of the Martian South Polar Cap
The South Pole of Mars is stranger than was previously thought. Pictured above are unexpectedly complex layers photographed recently by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft…
Reflection Nebula M78
An eerie blue glow and ominous columns of dark dust highlight M78, a bright reflection nebula in the constellation of Orion . The dust not only absorbs light, but also reflects…
Giant Cluster Bends, Breaks Images
What are those strange blue objects? Many are images of a single, unusual, beaded, blue, ring-like galaxy which just happens to line-up behind a giant cluster of galaxies. Cluster…
Journey to the Center of the Galaxy
In Jules Verne 's science fiction classic A Journey to the Center of the Earth , Professor Hardwigg and his fellow explorers encounter many strange and exciting wonders. What…
Viewing discoveries from 15 May 2000 through 22 April 2000.