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.
Apollo 17 Panorama: Astronaut Running
What would it be like to explore the surface of another world? In 1972 during the Apollo 17 mission, astronaut Harrison Schmitt found out first hand. In this case, the world was…
Three Planets in Dawn Skies
Three children of the Sun rise in the east in this peaceful dawn skyview recorded December 7th near Bolu, Turkey. Inner planet Mercury , fresh from its second transit of the 21st…
NGC 2174: Emission Nebula in Orion
A lesser known sight in the nebula-rich constellation Orion, NGC 2174 can be found with binoculars near the head of the celestial hunter . About 6,400 light-years distant, the…
The Outskirts of M77
Face-on spiral galaxy M77 lies a mere 60 million light-years away toward the aquatic constellation Cetus . Also known as NGC 1068, its very bright core is well studied by…
Spirit Rover on Mars Imaged from Orbit
If you have the right equipment, you can see the Spirit rover currently rolling across Mars. The right equipment, however, is currently limited to the High Resolution Imaging…
The Antikythera Mechanism
What is it? It was found at the bottom of the sea aboard an ancient Greek ship. Its seeming complexity has prompted decades of study, although many of its functions remained…
Movie: The Active Sun
Plumes of hot gas shoot across the surface on even an average day on the Sun. Such volatile activity was captured in dramatic detail recently by the new Hinode satellite launched…
Phobos: Doomed Moon of Mars
This moon is doomed. Mars , the red planet named for the Roman god of war , has two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos , whose names are derived from the Greek for Fear and Panic.…
Star Trails at 19,000 Feet
In myth, Atlas holds up the heavens, but in this stunning view a mountain appears to serve as the southern night sky pivots around a snowy peak. Recorded during a climbing…
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…
Viewing discoveries from 10 December 2006 through 17 November 2006.