Browse NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day archive by date and media: Archive Discoveries
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Logarithmic Spirals Isabel and M51
Uncomfortably close hurricane Isabel (left) and 30 million light-year distant galaxy M51 actually don't have much in common. For starters, Isabel was hundreds of miles across,…
M33: Spiral Galaxy in Triangulum
The small constellation Triangulum in the northern sky harbors this magnificent face-on spiral galaxy, M33. Its popular names include the Pinwheel Galaxy or just the Triangulum…
Egging On the Autumnal Equinox
Today is the autumnal equinox -- should eggs be able to stand on end? This long-standing myth loses much of its mystique after a demonstration that eggs can be made to stand on…
Opportunity Rockets Toward Mars
Next stop: Mars . Two months ago, the second of two missions to Mars was launched from Cape Canaveral , Florida , USA above a Boeing Delta II rocket . The Mars Exploration Rover…
Inside the Eagle Nebula
From afar, the whole thing looks like an Eagle . A closer look at the Eagle Nebula , however, shows the bright region is actually a window into the center of a larger dark shell…
Apollo 11: Catching Some Sun
Bright sunlight glints and long dark shadows dramatize this image of the lunar surface taken by Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first to walk on the Moon . Pictured is the…
Galileo's Europa
Launched in 1989 and looping through the jovian system since late 1995, the voyage of NASA's Galileo spacecraft will soon come to an end. The spacecraft has been targeted to…
Saturn by Three
These three views of Saturn were recorded by the Hubble Space Telescope on March 7th of this year, as the southern hemisphere of the solar system's most gorgeous planet reached…
The 2MASS Galaxy Sky
Are the nearest galaxies distributed randomly? A plot of over one million of the brightest “extended sources” detected by the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) shows that they are…
Hurricane Isabel Approaches
Where will Hurricane Isabel go? One of the stronger storm systems of modern times appears headed for one the more populated seaboards on planet Earth -- the east coast of the USA…
Globular Cluster M3
This huge ball of stars predates our Sun. Long before humankind evolved, before dinosaurs roamed , and even before our Earth existed, ancient globs of stars condensed and orbited…
The Crab Nebula from VLT
The Crab Nebula , filled with mysterious filaments, is the result of a star that was seen to explode in 1054 AD . This spectacular supernova explosion was recorded by Chinese and…
NGC 3132: The Eight Burst Nebula
It's the dim star, not the bright one, near the center of NGC 3132 that created this odd but beautiful planetary nebula . Nicknamed the Eight-Burst Nebula and the Southern Ring…
A Note on the Perseus Cluster
A truly enormous collection of thousands of galaxies, the Perseus Cluster - like other large galaxy clusters - is filled with hot, x-ray emitting gas. The x-ray hot gas (not the…
NGC 3370: A Sharper View
Similar in size and grand design to our own Milky Way , spiral galaxy NGC 3370 lies about 100 million light-years away toward the constellation Leo. Recorded here in exquisite…
Aurora Over Clouds
Aurorae usually occur high above the clouds. The auroral glow is created when fast-moving charged particles from the Earth's magnetosphere impact air molecules high in the Earth's…
A Gemini Sky
Where will Gemini take us tonight? It is dusk and Gemini North , one of the largest telescopes on planet Earth , prepares to peer into the distant universe. Gemini's flexible…
Stars and Dust of the Lagoon Nebula
The large majestic Lagoon Nebula is home for many young stars and hot gas. Spanning 100 light years across while lying only about 5000 light years distant, the Lagoon Nebulae is…
The Galactic Center in Infrared
The center of our Galaxy is a busy place. In visible light , much of the Galactic Center is obscured by opaque dust . In infrared light , however, dust glows more and obscures…
Jupiter Unpeeled
Slice Jupiter from pole to pole, peel back its outer layers of clouds , stretch them onto a flat surface ... and for all your trouble you'd end up with something that looks a lot…
SIRTF Streak
Streaking skyward, a Boeing Delta 2-Heavy rocket carries NASA's Space InfraRed Telescope Facility (SIRTF) aloft during the early morning hours of August 25th. The dramatic scene…
Composite Crab
The Crab Pulsar, a city-sized, magnetized neutron star spinning 30 times a second, lies at the center of this composite image of the inner region of the well-known Crab Nebula .…
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…
Contemplating Mars
Is that really another world? Thousands of people the world over lined up last week to see Mars through a telescope as the red planet and Earth passed unusually close together in…
Viewing discoveries from 25 September 2003 through 2 September 2003.