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.
Red Saturn
This strange, false-color image of otherwise familiar planet Saturn shows temperature changes based on thermal infrared emission in the gas giant's atmosphere and rings. Recorded…
Heat Shield Impact Crater on Mars
Broken metal and scorched Mars make the impact site of Opportunity's heat shield one of the more interesting sites inspected by the rolling robot . Visible on the image left is…
A Mysterious Streak Above Hawaii
What in heavens-above was that? Not everything seen on the night sky is understood. The Night Sky Live (NSL) project keeps its global array of continuously updating web cameras…
A Telescope Laser Creates an Artificial Star
What do you get when you combine one of the world's most powerful telescopes with a powerful laser ? An artificial star. Monitoring fluctuations in brightness of a genuine bright…
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…
The Radio Sky: Tuned to 408MHz
Tune your radio telescope to 408MHz (408 million cycles per second) and check out the Radio Sky! In the 1970s large dish antennas at three radio observatories, Jodrell Bank ,…
V838 Mon: Light Echo Update
Expanding light echoes continue to illuminate the dusty environs of V838 Monocerotis , mysterious variable star near the edge of our Galaxy. This stunning image , produced from…
SMART-1: Pythagoras Crater
Stark shadows show off the central peaks and terraced walls of 120 kilometer wide Pythagoras Crater in this mosaic of images from ESA's SMART-1 spacecraft. Characteristic of…
A Twisted Meteor Train
Did this meteor leave a twisting path? Evidently. Meteor trains that twist noticeably are rare - and even more rarely photographed - but have been noted before . The underlying…
Saturn's Iapetus: Moon with a Strange Surface
What has happened to Saturn's moon Iapetus? A strange ridge crosses the moon near the equator, visible near the bottom of the above image, making Iapetus appear similar to the pit…
NGC 2467: From Gas to Stars
One might guess that the group of stars on the left is responsible for shaping the gas cloud on the right -- but it probably is not. Observations of many of the stars in the NGC…
The Holographic Principle
Is this image worth a thousand words? According to the Holographic Principle , the most information you can get from this image is about 3 x 1065 bits for a normal sized computer…
Southern Cross in Mauna Loa Skies
Gazing across this gorgeous skyscape, the Southern Cross and stars of the constellation Centaurus are seen above the outline of Mauna Loa (Long Mountain), planet Earth's largest…
The Swarm
What do you call a group of black holes ... a flock, a brace, a swarm? Monitoring a region around the center of our Galaxy , astronomers have indeed found evidence for a…
Shadow Set
A nearly full Moon and planet Earth's shadow set together in this scene captured Monday from snowy Mt. Jelm, home of the Wyoming Infrared Observatory . For early morning risers…
First Launch of the Delta IV Heavy
The new Delta IV Heavy Launch Vehicle is the largest rocket ever to be launched by the US Air Force . The Delta IV Heavy is capable of launching over 23,000 kilograms into low…
NGC 6946: The Fireworks Galaxy
Why is this galaxy so active? Nearby spiral galaxy NGC 6946 is undergoing a tremendous burst of star formation with no obvious cause. In many cases spirals light up when…
Riverbeds and Lakebeds Discovered on Saturn's Titan
Methane rain, evaporating lakes, flowing rivers, and water ice-volcanoes all likely exist on Saturn's moon Titan, according to preliminary analyses of recent images taken by the…
NGC 2440: Cocoon of a New White Dwarf
Like a butterfly , a white dwarf star begins its life by casting off a cocoon that enclosed its former self. In this analogy, however, the Sun would be a caterpillar and the…
The Mysterious Voynich Manuscript
The ancient text has no known title, no known author, and is written in no known language: what does it say and why does it have many astronomy illustrations? The mysterious book…
Metal on the Plains of Mars
What has the Opportunity rover found on Mars? While traversing a vast empty plain in Meridiani Planum , one of Earth's yearling rolling robots found a surprise when visiting the…
A Waterspout off the Florida Keys
What's happening over the water? Pictured above is one of the better images yet recorded of a waterspout , a type of tornado that occurs over water. Waterspouts are spinning…
Eight Kilometers Above Titan
What are these surface features on Titan? Scroll right to see the panoramic view captured last week by the Huygens probe as it descended toward Saturn 's mysterious moon .…
NGC 346 in the Small Magellanic Cloud
A satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, the Small Magellanic Cloud ( SMC ) is a wonder of the southern sky, a mere 210,000 light-years distant in the constellation Tucana . Found…
Viewing discoveries from 10 February 2005 through 18 January 2005.