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.
Discovery Orbiter Anaglyph
Approaching the International Space Station on STS-121 in July , the Shuttle Orbiter Discovery posed for a series of photographs. The process was part of an inspection to check…
11 Hour Star Trails
Fix your camera to a tripod, lock the shutter open, and you can make an image of star trails - graceful concentric arcs traced by the stars as planet Earth rotates on its axis. Of…
M33: Spiral Galaxy in Triangulum
The small, northern constellation Triangulum harbors this magnificent face-on spiral galaxy, M33. Its popular names include the Pinwheel Galaxy or just the Triangulum Galaxy . M33…
Atlantis to Orbit
Birds don't fly this high. Airplanes don't go this fast. The Statue of Liberty weighs less. No species other than human can even comprehend what is going on, nor could any human…
Saturn at Night
This is what Saturn looks like at night. In contrast to the human-made lights that cause the nighttime side of Earth to glow faintly, Saturn's faint nighttime glow is primarily…
Eclipsed Moon Rising Over England
Last Thursday, part of our Moon turned dark. The cause, this time, was not a partial lunar phase -- the Moon was full -- but rather that part of the Moon went into Earth's shadow.…
Star Clusters Young and Old
Many stars form in clusters. 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…
Shadow Play
During September 7th's lunar eclipse, the Moon slid through the Earth's shadow. Extending into space , Earth's cone-shaped shadow has two distinct parts, the lighter, outer part…
Messier 110
This very sharp telescopic vista features the last object in the modern version of Charles Messier's catalog of bright clusters and nebulae - Messier 110 . A dwarf elliptical…
Colorful Moon Mosaic
No single exposure can easily capture faint stars along with the subtle colors of the Moon. But this dramatic composite view highlights both. The mosaic digitally stitches…
Green Aurora Over Lake Superior
What if your horizon was green? If you've got a camera, take a picture! That was the experience of Jeff Hapeman last week when visiting the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in…
Bright Cliffs Across Saturn's Moon Dione
What causes the bright streaks on Dione? Recent images of this unusual moon by the robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn are helping to crack the mystery. Close inspection…
The Large Magellanic Cloud in Infrared
Where does dust collect in galaxies? To help find out, a team of researchers took the most detailed image ever of gas clouds and dust in the neighboring Large Magellanic Cloud…
Pluto in True Color
Pluto is mostly brown. The above picture captures the true colors of Pluto as well as the highest surface resolution so far recovered . Although no spacecraft has yet visited this…
Dusty Spiral M66
When morning twilight came to the Paranal Observatory in Chile, astronomers Mark Neeser and Peter Barthel interrupted their search for faint quasars , billions of light-years…
Gemini South Star Trails
Stars seem to arc through southern skies in this surrealistic time exposure -- recorded before moonrise from the Gemini South Observatory, Cerro Pachon, Chile, Planet Earth .…
Extra Galaxies
Careful inspection of the full field of view for this sharp composite image reveals a surprising number of galaxies both near and far toward the constellation Ursa Major . The…
A Backward Sunspot and the New Solar Cycle
Why is sunspot 905 backwards? Perhaps it is a key marker for the beginning of a new magnetic cycle on our Sun . Every 11 years, our Sun goes through a magnetic cycle , at the end…
Supernova Remnant E0102 from Hubble
It's the blue wisp near the bottom that's the remnant of a tremendous recent supernova explosion. The large pink structure looming to the upper right is part of N76, a large star…
Eight Planets and New Solar System Designations
How many planets are in the Solar System? This popular question now has a new formal answer according the International Astronomical Union (IAU): eight. Last week, the IAU voted…
Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1300
Big, beautiful, barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300 lies some 70 million light-years away on the banks of the constellation Eridanus . This Hubble Space Telescope composite view of the…
Apollo 17: VIP Site Anaglyph
Get out your red/blue glasses and check out this stereo scene from Taurus-Littrow valley on the Moon! The color anaglyph features a detailed 3D view of Apollo 17's Lunar Rover in…
Blue Lagoon
Stars come and go as you slide your cursor over this engaging image of M8, aka the Lagoon Nebula . Of course, the nebula is itself a star-forming region , but the stars that…
The Matter of the Bullet Cluster
The matter in galaxy cluster 1E 0657-56, fondly known as the “bullet cluster”, is shown in this composite image . A mere 3.4 billion light-years away, the bullet cluster's…
Viewing discoveries from 16 September 2006 through 24 August 2006.