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.
Stars Young and Old
Galactic or open star clusters are relatively young swarms of bright stars born together near the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Separated by about a degree on the sky, two nice…
The Busy Center of the Lagoon Nebula
Stars are battling gas and dust in the Lagoon Nebula but the photographers are winning. Also known as M8, this photogenic nebula is visible even without binoculars towards the…
A Shuttle Back Flip at the Space Station
Last week, crew members of the International Space Station (ISS) watched carefully as the Space Shuttle Discovery did a planned but unusual back flip upon approach. Discovery…
2003 UB313: A Tenth Planet?
Has a tenth planet been discovered? A newly discovered object , designated 2003 UB 313 and located more than twice the distance of Pluto , is expected to be at least as large as…
Solar System Object Larger than Pluto Discovered
Is that a tenth planet? A faint, slowly moving dot discovered by computer shows clear signs of being a deep Solar System object at least as large as Pluto . The object, designated…
M106 in Canes Venatici
Close to the Great Bear (Ursa Major) and surrounded by the stars of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici), this celestial nebula was discovered in 1781 by the metric French astronomer…
ISS and Discovery Transit the Sun
That large sunspot near the right edge of the Sun is actually not a sunspot at all. It's the International Space Station ( ISS ) and the Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-114…
Spherical Planetary Nebula Abell 39
Ghostly in appearance, Abell 39 is a remarkably simple, spherical nebula about five light-years across. Well within our own Milky Way galaxy, the cosmic sphere is roughly 7,000…
America Returns to Human Space Flight
NASA 's launch of the massive Space Shuttle Discovery yesterday brought a nation known for its tremendous space program back to human space flight. Shuttle flights had been…
Hyperion: Sponge Moon of Saturn
Why is Saturn's moon Hyperion textured like a sponge? Recent high-resolution images from the robot Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn show Hyperion to be an even stranger place…
Unusual Gas Filaments Surround Galaxy NGC 1275
How were the unusual gas filaments surrounding galaxy NGC 1275 created? No one is sure. Galaxy NGC 1275 is the central dominant galaxy of the Perseus Cluster of Galaxies , a…
A Chicago Meteorite Fall
If you wait long enough, a piece of outer space itself will come right to you. As Colby Navarro worked innocently on the computer , a rock from space crashed through the roof,…
Ringed Nebulae
This gorgeous celestial vista is centered on one of the Milky Way's own planetary nebulae , M57, the famous Ring Nebula . The wide view is a composite of three exposures; one to…
Tethys, Rings, and Shadows
Seen from ice moon Tethys , rings and shadows would play across fantastic views of the Saturnian system. Haven't dropped in on Tethys lately? Then this gorgeous ringscape from the…
X-Ray Stars of 47 Tuc
Visible light images show the central region of globular cluster 47 Tuc anae is closely packed, with stars less than a tenth of a light-year apart. This Chandra false-color x-ray…
Water Ice in a Martian Crater
What lies on the floor of this Martian crater? A frozen patch of water ice. The robotic Mars Express spacecraft took the above image in early February. The ice pocket was found in…
A Nearby Supernova in M51
One of the nearest supernovas of recent years was discovered late last month in the bright nearby galaxy M51 . It is visible on the right of the above before and after images of…
Deep Impact on Comet Tempel 1 from Hubble
It was a human-made event visible across the Solar System. At the direction of terrestrial scientists , a refrigerator-sized probe from the Deep Impact mission struck Comet Tempel…
The Center of Centaurus A
A fantastic jumble of young blue star clusters, gigantic glowing gas clouds, and imposing dark dust lanes surrounds the central region of the active galaxy Centaurus A. This…
Galaxy Group HCG 87
Posing for this cosmic family photo are the galaxies of HCG ( Hickson Compact Group ) 87, about four hundred million light-years distant toward the amphibious constellation…
Reflections on the Inner Solar System
Only Mars is missing from this reflective view of the major rocky bodies of the inner solar system . Captured on July 8th, the serene, twilight picture looks out over the Flat…
Star Trails Over Vienna
As the Earth spins on its axis, the sky seems to rotate around us. This motion, called diurnal motion , produces the beautiful concentric trails traced by stars during time…
Analemma of the Moon
An analemma is that figure-8 curve you get when you mark the position of the Sun at the same time each day for one year. But the trick to imaging an analemma of the Moon is to…
Launch of the Red Bird
Glare and exhaust from the three stage, solid fuel M-V-6 rocket punctuates a perfect launch of the Astro-E2 observatory . The dramatic picture was taken at the Uchinoura Space…
Viewing discoveries from 4 August 2005 through 12 July 2005.