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.
Leonids Over Korean Observatory
There were two peaks to this year's Leonid Meteor Shower . The first peak was best seen during the early morning hours of November 18 in North America , while the second peak,…
Venusian Half-Shell
Venus , second planet from the Sun, appears above imaged for the first time ever in x-rays (left) by the orbiting Chandra Observatory . Chandra's smoothed, false-color, x-ray view…
Globular Cluster M15
Stars, like bees, swarm around the center of bright globular cluster M15. This ball of over 100,000 stars is a relic from the early years of our Galaxy , and continues to orbit…
The Belt of Venus
Although you've surely seen it, you might not have noticed it. During a cloudless twilight , just before sunrise or after sunset , part of the atmosphere above the horizon appears…
Moon Struck
Craters produced by ancient impacts on the airless Moon have long been a familiar sight . But only since 1999 have observers seen elusive optical flashes on the lunar surface -…
Mediterranean Leonid 2001
A road trip from Ankara to the Mediterranean coast southeast of Antalya, Turkey found clear skies and splendid scenery for astrophotographer Tunc Tezel's viewing of the 2001…
Comet Linear (WM1) Brightens
A comet bright enough to be seen with binoculars is swooping into southern skies. Comet C/2000 WM1 (LINEAR) continues to brighten and develop tails as it nears its closest…
A Sky Filled with Leonids
In the early morning hours of November 19, amateur Chen Huang-Ming caught a sky filled with astronomical wonders. With his fisheye camera set up on Ho-Huan Mountain in Taiwan for…
AE Aurigae: The Flaming Star
Is star AE Aurigae on fire? Although surrounded by what may look like smoke , the object known as the “flaming star” creates energy primarily by nuclear fusion , like other stars.…
Dueling Auroras
Will it be curtains for one of these auroras? A quick inspection indicates that it is curtains for both, as the designation “ curtains ” well categorizes the type of aurora…
Rumors of a Strange Universe
Three years ago results were first presented indicating that most of the energy in our universe is not in stars or galaxies but is tied to space itself. In the language of…
Neptune's Great Dark Spot: Gone But Not Forgotten
When NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by distant Neptune in August of 1989, astronomers were shocked. Since Neptune receives only 3 percent the sunlight Jupiter does, they…
Meteor Storm Sights and Sounds
This dramatic four-frame animation shows a fireball meteor and its developing persistent “smoke” train, recorded two weeks ago in skies near Salvador, Brazil. Indeed similar…
Coronal Inflow
The active Sun has thrown a lot our way lately, including storms of particles streaming outward in the solar wind and clouds of plasma which triggered awesome auroral displays.…
Extra-Solar Planetary Atmosphere Detected
By directly detecting the atmosphere of a planet outside our Solar System , humanity has taken another small step toward finding extraterrestrial life . The unexpected detection…
Ancient Layered Rocks on Mars
Is this a picture of Mars or Earth? Oddly enough, it is a picture of Mars . What may appear to some as a terrestrial coastline is in fact a formation of ancient layered rocks and…
Leonids From the Road
Sometimes you just have to stop and watch the meteors . In the early morning hours of November 18, a band of eleven people searched for a flat and cloudless site to see the 2001…
M16: Stars from Eagle's EGGs
Newborn stars are forming in the Eagle Nebula. This image , taken with the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, shows evaporating gaseous globules (EGGs) emerging from pillars of…
Mariner's Mercury
Mercury , the closest planet to the Sun, remains the most mysterious of the Solar System's inner planets. Hiding in the Sun's glare it is a difficult target for Earth bound…
Counting Falling Stardust
In the clear, dark and moonless predawn hours of November 18 , Greenbelt, Maryland's local baseball field was packed. The crowd stared skyward and occasionally conversed in hushed…
Fireball, Smoke Trail, Meteor Storm
Returning from orbit , space shuttles enter the atmosphere at about 8 kilometers per second as friction heats their protective ceramic tiles to over 1,400 degrees Celsius. By…
The Galactic Ring of NGC 6782
Do spiral galaxies look the same in every color? NGC 6782 demonstrates colorfully that they do not. In visible light , NGC 6782 appears to be a normal spiral galaxy with a bright…
A Leonids Star Field
As meteor after meteor streaked across a moonless sky, photographers across the world snapped pictures of the 2001 Leonids Meteor Shower . Many recognized this as the best meteor…
A 2001 Leonids Meteor Shower Fireball
The 2001 Leonids Meteor Shower gave quite a show to many parts of the world yesterday during the early morning hours. Many sleepy observers venturing into their own backyards were…
Viewing discoveries from 12 December 2001 through 19 November 2001.