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.
The Veil Nebula Unveiled
These wisps of gas are all that remain visible of a Milky Way star. Many thousands of years ago that star exploded in a supernova leaving the Veil Nebula , pictured above . At the…
Fountains Discovered on Saturn's Enceladus
Fountains of ice shoot out from Saturn's moon Enceladus. Clear discovery images of the fountains were made using observations from the robot Cassini spacecraft currently orbiting…
Proxima Centauri: The Closest Star
What is the closest star to our Sun ? It is Proxima Centauri , the nearest member of the Alpha Centauri triple star system . Light takes only 4.22 years to reach us from Proxima…
Astro 1 In Orbit
Fifteen years ago, in December of 1990, the Space Shuttle Orbiter Columbia carried an array of astronomical telescopes high above the Earth's obscuring atmosphere to explore the…
Crab Nebula Mosaic from HST
The Crab Nebula is cataloged as M1, the first object on Charles Messier's famous list of things which are not comets. In fact, the cosmic Crab is now known to be a supernova…
SOHO's Uninterrupted View of the Sun
Launched ten years ago this week, SOHO (the SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory) still enjoys an uninterrupted view of the Sun. Twelve sungazing instruments on board the spacecraft…
Reflections on the Horsehead Nebula
Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud by chance has assumed this recognizable shape. Fittingly named the Horsehead Nebula , it is some…
Simeis 147: Supernova Remnant from Palomar
It's easy to get lost following the intricate filaments in this detailed image of faint supernova remnant Simeis 147. Seen towards the constellation Taurus it covers nearly 3…
Vista Inside Gusev Crater on Mars
What is the geologic history of Mars? To help find out, the robot Spirit rover explored the terrain on the way up to the top of Husband Hill and took pictures along the way.…
Light Echoes from V838 Mon
What caused this outburst of V838 Mon? For reasons unknown, star V838 Mon 's outer surface suddenly greatly expanded with the result that it became the brightest star in the…
A Stereo Sun
A stereo view of the closest star , this creatively composited image was constructed from an extensive archive of pictures taken between March 2004 and April 2005. When viewed…
Moon Over Antarctica
Last week, the nearly Full Moon set along the northern horizon - as seen from Davis Station , Antarctica . The squashed orange pumpkin shape just silhouettes the peak of a distant…
Dusty NGC 1333
Dusty NGC 1333 is seen as a reflection nebula in visible light images, sporting bluish hues characteristic of starlight reflected by dust. But at longer infrared wavelengths, the…
Pandora: A Shepherd Moon of Saturn
What does Saturn's small moon Pandora look like? To help find out, the robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn passed about 50,000 kilometers from the unusual moon in early…
Galactic Collision in Cluster Abell 1185
What is a guitar doing in a cluster of galaxies? Colliding. Clusters of galaxies are sometimes packed so tight that the galaxies that compose them collide . A prominent example…
The Missing Craters of Asteroid Itokawa
Where are the craters on asteroid Itokawa? No one knows. The Japanese robot probe Hayabusa recently approached the Earth-crossing asteroid and is returning pictures showing a…
Rays from an Unexpected Aurora
This aurora was a bit of a surprise. For starters, on this Friday morning in August 2002, no intense auroral activity was expected at all. Possibly more surprising, however, the…
NGC 2359: Thor's Helmet
NGC 2359 is a striking emission nebula with an impressive popular name - Thor's Helmet. Sure, its suggestive winged appearance might lead some to refer to it as the “duck nebula”,…
The 37 Cluster
For the mostly harmless denizens of planet Earth, the brighter stars of open cluster NGC 2169 seem to form a cosmic 37. (Did you expect 42? .) Of course, the improbable numerical…
Young Stars of NGC 346
Star cluster NGC 346 is embedded in the largest star forming region in the Small Magellanic Cloud , some 210,000 light-years distant. The massive stars of NGC 346 are short lived,…
A Robot's Shadow on Asteroid Itokawa
What's that unusual looking spot on asteroid Itokawa? It's the shadow of the robot spacecraft Hayabusa that took the image. Japan 's Hayabusa mission arrived at the asteroid in…
A Taurid Meteor Fireball
Have you ever seen a very bright meteor? Unexpected, this year's Taurid meteor shower resulted in numerous reports of very bright fireball s during the nights surrounding…
Everest Panorama from Mars
If you could stand on Mars -- what might you see? Scroll right to find out. The robotic Spirit rover currently rolling across Mars climbed to the top of hill and took a series of…
Lunation
Our Moon's appearance changes nightly. This time-lapse sequence shows what our Moon looks like during a lunation , a complete lunar cycle. As the Moon orbits the Earth , the half…
Viewing discoveries from 6 December 2005 through 13 November 2005.