Browse NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day archive by date and media: Archive Discoveries
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Light from the Heart Nebula
What powers the Heart Nebula? The large emission nebula dubbed IC 1805 looks, in whole, like a human heart . The nebula glows brightly in red light emitted by its most prominent…
Victoria Crater on Mars
Scroll right to see the largest crater yet visited by a rover on Mars. Reaching the expansive Victoria Crater has been a goal for the robotic Opportunity rover rolling across Mars…
Earth at Night
This is what the Earth looks like at night. Can you find your favorite country or city ? Surprisingly, city lights make this task quite possible. Human-made lights highlight…
STS-115: Stereo Portrait
On September 12, astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper snapped photos of her colleague Joseph Tanner during the STS-115 mission . At the time, the spacesuited pair were working…
NGC 5905 and 5908
These two beautiful galaxies, NGC 5905 (left) and NGC 5908 lie about 140 million light-years distant in the northern constellation Draco . Separated by about 500,000 light-years,…
RCW 86: Historical Supernova Remnant
In 185 AD, Chinese astronomers recorded the appearance of a new star in the Nanmen asterism - a part of the sky identified with Alpha and Beta Centauri on modern star charts. The…
Earth from Saturn
What's that pale blue dot in this image taken from Saturn? Earth . The robotic Cassini spacecraft looked back toward its old home world earlier this month as it orbited Saturn .…
Mars Express: Return to Cydonia
The unusual stone mesas of the Cydonia region on Mars are quite striking in appearance. Last week, the Mars Express project released a new close-up image of a portion of the…
Mars Express Close-Up of the Face on Mars
Wouldn't it be fun if clouds were turtles ? Wouldn't it be fun if the laundry on the bedroom chair was a friendly monster ? Wouldn't it be fun if rock mesas on Mars were faces or…
NGC 1499: The California Nebula
What's California doing in space? Drifting through the Orion Arm of the spiral Milky Way Galaxy, this cosmic cloud by chance echoes the outline of California on the west coast of…
Triple Sunrise
Today, the Sun rises due east at the Equinox , a geocentric astronomical event that occurs twice a year. To celebrate, consider this view of the rising Sun and a lovely set of ice…
Central IC 1805
Cosmic clouds seem to form fantastic shapes in the central regions of emission nebula IC 1805. Of course, the clouds are sculpted by stellar winds and radiation from massive hot…
Sharp Silhouette
Though it's 93 million miles away, the Sun still hurts your eyes when you look at it. But bright sunlight (along with accurate planning and proper equipment!) resulted in this…
The International Space Station Expands Again
The developing International Space Station (ISS) has changed its appearance again. Over the past few days, the Space Shuttle Atlantis visited the ISS and added pieces of the…
Beagle Crater on Mars
What have we found on the way to large Victoria Crater? Smaller Beagle Crater . The robotic Opportunity rover rolling across Mars stopped at Beagle Crater early last month and…
Eris: The Largest Known Dwarf Planet
Is Pluto the largest dwarf planet? No! Currently, the largest known dwarf planet is (136199) Eris , renamed last week from 2003 UB313 . Eris is just slightly larger than Pluto,…
Anticrepuscular Rays Over Florida
What's happening over the horizon? Although the scene may appear somehow supernatural , nothing more unusual is occurring than a setting Sun and some well placed clouds.…
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…
Viewing discoveries from 3 October 2006 through 10 September 2006.