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.
In the Arms of NGC 1097
A smaller companion seems wrapped in the spiral arms of enigmatic galaxy NGC 1097 . This amazingly deep image of the peculiar spiral system, also known as Arp 77, actually…
A Pelican in the Swan
The Pelican Nebula lies about 2,000 light-years away in the high flying constellation Cygnus, the Swan . Also known as IC 5070, this cosmic pelican is appropriately found just off…
A Big Dish at the VLA Radio Observatory
They are so large, they are almost unreal. The radio dishes of the Very Large Array (VLA) of radio telescopes might appear to some as a strange combination of a dinosaur skeleton…
Unusual Starburst Galaxy NGC 1313
Why is this galaxy so discombobulated? Usually, galaxies this topsy-turvy result from a recent collision with a neighboring galaxy. Spiral galaxy NGC 1313, however, appears to be…
Mysterious Spokes in Saturn's Rings
What causes the mysterious spokes in Saturn's rings? Visible on the left of the above image as ghostlike impressions, spokes were first discovered by the Voyager spacecraft that…
M31: The Andromeda Galaxy
Andromeda is the nearest major galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy . Our Galaxy is thought to look much like Andromeda . Together these two galaxies dominate the Local Group of…
3D Mercury Transit
Mercury is now visible shortly before dawn, the brightest “star” just above the eastern horizon. But almost two weeks ago Mercury actually crossed the face of the Sun for the…
Alpha Cam: Runaway Star
Runaway stars are massive stars traveling rapidly through interstellar space. Like a ship plowing through cosmic seas, runaway star Alpha Cam has produced this graceful arcing bow…
Hydrogen in M33
Gorgeous spiral galaxy M33 seems to have more than its fair share of hydrogen. Its inner 30,000 light-years are shown here in an image processed to fully reveal the reddish glow…
A Bucket-Wheel Excavator on Earth
Please wait while one of the largest mobile machines in the world crosses the road. The machine pictured above is a bucket-wheel excavator used in modern surface mining . Machines…
A Leonid Meteor Over Sweden
This past weekend, small remnant bits of a distant comet lit up the skies over much of planet Earth. Incoming reports , however, have this year's Leonid meteor shower as less…
M42: Wisps of the Orion Nebula
The Great Nebula in Orion , an immense, nearby starbirth region , is probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulas . Here, glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge…
The Car, the Hole, and the Peekskill Meteorite
The Peekskill meteor of 1992 was captured on 16 independent video s and then struck a car. Documented as brighter than the full Moon , the spectacular fireball crossed parts of…
Leonids and Leica
This lovely view from northern Spain at Cape Creus on the easternmost point of the Iberian peninsula , looks out across the Mediteranean and up into the stream of the 2002 Leonid…
Hand Drawn Transit
The sight of Mercury's tiny round disk drifting slowly across the face of the Sun inspired and entertained many denizens of planet Earth last week. In fact, artist and astronomer…
Children of the Sun
For a moment , planets Jupiter , Venus , Mars , and Mercury all posed near their parent star in this Sun-centered view, recorded on November 11. The picture, from a coronograph…
A Fog Bow Over California
Is that white arch real? What is being seen is a fogbow , a reflection of sunlight by water drops similar to a rainbow but without the colors. The fog itself is not confined to an…
Mercury's Transit: An Unusual Spot on the Sun
What's that dot on the Sun? If you look closely, it is almost perfectly round. The dot is the result of an unusual type of solar eclipse that occurred last week. Usually it is the…
A Hurricane Over the South Pole of Saturn
What's happening at the south pole of Saturn? To find out, scientists sent the robot Cassini probe now orbiting Saturn directly over the lower spin axis of the ringed giant.…
The Cat's Eye Nebula
Three thousand light-years away, a dying star throws off shells of glowing gas. This image from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals the Cat's Eye Nebula to be one of the most…
M51: Cosmic Whirlpool
Follow the handle of the Big Dipper away from the dipper's bowl, until you get to the handle's last bright star. Then, just slide your telescope a little south and west and you…
Mercury and the Chromosphere
Enjoying Wednesday's transit of Mercury from Dallas, Texas, astronomer Phil Jones recorded this detailed image of the Sun. Along with a silhouette of the innermost planet, a…
Halo and Hexagons
As a bright November Moon lit up the night sky last week, Gil Esquerdo spotted this lovely Moon halo overhead at the Whipple Observatory on Mt. Hopkins, Arizona. In the…
Simulated Transit of Mercury
Mercury, the solar system's innermost planet, will spend about five hours crossing in front of the Sun today - beginning at 1912 UT (2:12pm EST), November 8. Specially equipped…
Viewing discoveries from 1 December 2006 through 8 November 2006.