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.
SOFIA's Window Seat
Earlier this month, a 2.5-meter diameter infrared telescope was permanently assigned a window seat , looking through this opening in the fuselage of a historic Boeing 747…
Recurrent Nova RS Ophiuci
This pretty star field in the constellation Ophiucus is centered on a star not often seen - RS Ophiuci. In fact, early last week RS Oph suddenly became visible to the naked eye…
Saturn Storm by Ringshine
Imaged on the night side of Saturn by the Cassini spacecraft , these swirling storm clouds are illuminated by ringshine - sunlight reflected from the gas giant's magnificent ring…
An Unusually Smooth Surface on Saturn's Telesto
Why is Saturn's small moon Telesto so smooth? Possibly Telesto is covered with a type of granular icy material similar to that suspected of covering Pandora , another of Saturn's…
Wisps Surrounding the Horsehead Nebula
The famous Horsehead Nebula in Orion is not alone. A deep exposure shows that the dark familiar shaped indentation, visible just below center, is part of a vast complex of…
SuitSat-1: A Spacesuit Floats Free
Who dunnit? Like a scene from a space mystery movie, a spacesuit floated away from the International Space Station earlier this month, but no investigation was needed. It was…
M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy in Dust and Stars
The Whirlpool Galaxy is a classic spiral galaxy. At only 30 million light years distant and fully 60 thousand light years across, M51 , also known as NGC 5194, is one of the…
Mir Dreams
This dream -like image of Mir was recorded by astronauts as the space shuttle orbiter Atlantis approached the Russian space station prior to docking during the STS-76 mission in…
Supernova Remnant and Shock Wave
A massive star ends life as a supernova, blasting its outer layers back to interstellar space. The spectacular death explosion is initiated by the collapse of what has become an…
The Color of the Moon
Earth's Moon is normally seen in subtle shades of grey or yellow. But small color differences have been greatly exaggerated to make this dramatic mosaic image of the Moon's…
Rotating Titan in Infrared Light
Titan is one of the strangest places in our Solar System . The only moon known with thick clouds , this unusual satellite of Saturn shows evidence of evaporating lakes created by…
Dust and Light in the Rosette Nebula
What creates the cosmic dust sculptures in the Rosette Nebula? Noted for the common beauty of its overall shape , parts of the Rosette Nebula , also known as NGC 2244, show beauty…
The N44 Emission Nebula
N44 is one of the largest and most intricate nebulas in this part of the universe. Located in our galactic neighbor the Large Magellanic Cloud , N44 houses numerous massive bright…
Phoebe: Comet Moon of Saturn
Was Saturn's moon Phoebe once a comet? Images from the robotic Cassini spacecraft taken two years ago when entering the neighborhood of Saturn indicate that Phoebe may have…
Plato and the Lunar Alps
The dark-floored, 95 kilometer wide crater Plato (top) and sunlit peaks of the lunar Alps are highlighted in this sharp digital mosaic of the Moon's surface . While the Alps of…
M8: The Lagoon Nebula
This beautiful cosmic cloud is a popular stop on telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius . Eighteenth century cosmic tourist Charles Messier cataloged the bright nebula…
NGC 1309 and Friends
A gorgeous spiral galaxy some 100 million light-years distant, NGC 1309 lies on the banks of the constellation Eridanus . NGC 1309 spans about 30,000 light-years, one third the…
The Great Basin on Tethys
Some moons wouldn't survive the collision. Tethys , one of Saturn's larger moons at about 1000 kilometers in diameter, survived the collision, but sports today the expansive…
UB 313: Larger than Pluto
What do you call an outer Solar System object that is larger than Pluto? Nobody is yet sure. The question arose recently when 2003 UB313 , an object currently twice as far out as…
The N44 Superbubble
What created this gigantic hole? The vast emission nebula N44 in our neighboring galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud has a large, 250 light-year hole and astronomers are trying to…
A Sun Pillar in Red and Violet
Sometimes the unknown is beautiful. In 2000 February near Lake Tahoe, Nevada , two amateur photographers noticed an unusual red column of light rise mysteriously from a setting…
Shadow Set
A nearly full Moon and planet Earth's shadow set together in this scene captured on January 13th from snowy Mt. Jelm, home of the Wyoming Infrared Observatory . For early morning…
Cosmic Tornado HH49/50
Light-years in length, this cosmic tornado is actually a powerful jet cataloged as HH (Herbig-Haro) 49/50 blasting down from the top of a Spitzer Space Telescope view . Though…
Thor's Helmet in H-Alpha
Near picture center, the helmet-shaped structure with wing-like appendages is popularly called Thor's Helmet . Cataloged as NGC 2359, the striking nebula is located about 15,000…
Viewing discoveries from 25 February 2006 through 2 February 2006.