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.
NGC 1068 and the X-Ray Flashlight
At night , tilting a flashlight up under your chin hides the glowing bulb from the direct view of your friends. Light from the bulb still reflects from your face though, and can…
Dust Storm Over Northern Mars
Almost on cue , as Mars nears its closest approach to planet Earth in recorded history, ominous seasonal dust storms are beginning to kick up. Observers worry that the activity…
HD70642: A Star with Similar Planets
Astronomers have discovered a planetary system more similar to our own Solar System than any known previously . The bright star HD70642 , visible with binoculars toward the…
Mt. Anatahan Erupts
Nobody suspected that this volcano would erupt. Mt. Anatahan has not erupted in recorded history. Nevertheless, on May 10, the small volcano in the Northern Mariana Islands of the…
At the Edge of the Sun
Dramatic prominences can sometimes be seen looming just beyond the edge of the sun. A solar prominence is a cloud of solar gas held just above the surface by the Sun's magnetic…
Fractal Interstellar Dust Up-Close
Our universe is a very dusty place. Dust usually shows its presence by blocking out light emitted from stars or nebulae behind it, sometimes creating the illusion of a horse's…
Centaurus A: X-Rays from an Active Galaxy
Its core hidden from optical view by a thick lane of dust, the giant elliptical galaxy Centaurus A was among the first objects observed by the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory .…
N49's Cosmic Blast
Scattered debris from a cosmic supernova explosion lights up the sky in this gorgeous composited image based on data from the Hubble Space Telescope. Cataloged as N49, these…
The Vela Pulsar's Dynamic Jet
The Vela pulsar is a neutron star born over 10,000 years ago in a massive supernova explosion . Above, false-color x-ray images from the Chandra Observatory reveal details of this…
Aurora Over Cape Cod
Active pillars of colorful aurora were captured dancing over a serenely smooth and nearly colorless Cape Cod Bay last month. North is straight ahead so that the town lights near…
Martian Moon Phobos from MGS
Why is Phobos so dark? Phobos , the largest and innermost of two Martian moons, is the darkest moon in the entire Solar System . Its unusual orbit and color indicate that it may…
Disappearing Clouds in Carina
This dense cloud of gas and dust is being deleted. Likely, within a few million years, the intense light from bright stars will have boiled it away completely. Stars not yet…
The Solar Spectrum
It is still not known why the Sun's light is missing some colors. Shown above are all the visible colors of the Sun , produced by passing the Sun's light through a prism -like…
Messiers and Mars
A telescopic tour of the constellation Sagittarius offers the many bright clusters and nebulae of dimensioned space in a starscape surrounding the galactic center . This gorgeous…
SpaceShipOne
Slung below its equally innovative mothership dubbed White Knight, SpaceShipOne rides above planet Earth, photographed during a recent flight test. SpaceShipOne was designed and…
Martian Analemma
On planet Earth, an analemma is the figure-8 loop you get when you mark the position of the Sun at the same time each day throughout the year. But similarly marking the position…
Galaxies in the GOODS
This tantalizing view of galaxies scattered near and far is part of the Hubble Space Telescope's contribution to the GOODS - the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey project.…
The Sun's Surface in 3D
How smooth is the Sun? The new Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope , deployed in the Canary Islands only last year, allows imaging of objects less than 100-km across on the Sun's surface…
KamLAND Verifies the Sun
A large sphere beneath Japan has helped verify humanity's understanding of the inner workings of the Sun . The KamLAND sphere , shown above during construction in 2001, fails to…
Massive Stars of 30 Doradus
In the center of star-forming region 30 Doradus lies a huge cluster of the largest, hottest, most massive stars known. These stars and part of the surrounding nebula are captured…
A Crescent Earth at Midnight
The Earth's northern hemisphere is outlined as a sunlit crescent in this dramatic view from orbit, recorded near local midnight by the G eostationary O perational E nvironmental S…
Snake in the Dark
Dark nebulae snake across a gorgeous expanse of stars in this wide-field view toward the pronounceable constellation Ophiucus and the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. In fact, the…
The Moon Maiden
Along the northwestern reaches of the lunar near side , the Sinus Iridum or Bay of Rainbows appropriately lies at the edge of the Moon's smooth, dark Sea of Rains (Mare Imbrium).…
Clouds and the Moon Move to Block the Sun
High above a small church near Vienna, Austria , clouds and the Moon vied for position in front of the Sun. Such was the case on the ground late last month during a partial…
Viewing discoveries from 11 July 2003 through 18 June 2003.