Browse NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day archive by date and media: Archive Discoveries
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A Blue Crescent Moon from Space
What's happening to the Moon? Drifting around the Earth in 2006 July, astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) captured a crescent Moon floating far beyond the…
Galaxy Group Hickson 44
Galaxies, like stars, frequently form groups. A group of galaxies is a system containing more than two galaxies but less than the tens or hundreds typically found in a cluster of…
A Higher Dimensional Universe?
Does our universe have higher but unusual spatial dimensions ? This idea has been gaining popularity to help explain why vastly separated parts of our universe appear so similar ,…
Eiffel Moon
Celestial and terrestrial lights are featured in this stunning image that includes the Moon in phases of the total lunar eclipse of March 3rd . In the foreground, the…
Eclipsing the Rings
The March 3rd total lunar eclipse was widely viewed by denizens of planet Earth. But only a day before, well placed observers could also watch a lunar occultation of Saturn as the…
NGC 2442: Galaxy in Volans
Distorted galaxy NGC 2442 can be found in the southern constellation of the flying fish , (Piscis) Volans . Located about 50 million light-years away, the galaxy's two spiral arms…
Barred Spiral Galaxy M95
Why do some spiral galaxies have a ring around the center? First and foremost, M95 is one of the closer examples of a big and beautiful barred spiral galaxy . Visible in the above…
Attacking Mars
The Spirit rover attacked Mars again in 2005 September. What might look, above, like a military attack, though, was once again just a scientific one - Spirit was instructed to…
Watch Jupiter Rotate
What would it be like to coast by Jupiter and watch it rotate? This was just the experience of the New Horizons spacecraft as it approached and flew by Jupiter earlier this year.…
The Einstein Cross Gravitational Lens
Most galaxies have a single nucleus -- does this galaxy have four? The strange answer leads astronomers to conclude that the nucleus of the surrounding galaxy is not even visible…
Eclipse with Lighthouse
A red Moon rose over Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA on March 3rd, immersed in Earth's shadow near the total phase of a lunar eclipse. This serene portrait of the eclipsed Moon in a…
Eclipse and Ecliptic
When a Full Moon lies near the ecliptic there can be a lunar eclipse . That cosmic alignment is well illustrated in this composite of eclipse images recorded last Saturday near…
Eclipsed Moon and Stars
This dramatic image features a dark red Moon during a total lunar eclipse -- celestial shadow play enjoyed by many denizens of planet Earth last Saturday. Recorded near Wildon,…
New Horizons Spacecraft Passes Jupiter
A new spacecraft is headed for the outer Solar System. Named New Horizons , this robotic explorer passed Jupiter last week after being launched only in early 2006. New Horizons is…
Saturn from Above
This image of Saturn could not have been taken from Earth. No Earth based picture could possibly view the night side of Saturn and the corresponding shadow cast across Saturn's…
Illusion and Evolution in Galaxy Cluster Abell 2667
What's happening to the galaxies of cluster Abell 2667? On the upper left, a galaxy appears to be breaking up into small pieces, while on the far right, another galaxy appears to…
Triton: Neptune's Largest Moon
In October of 1846, William Lassell was observing the newly discovered planet Neptune . He was attempting to confirm his observation, made just the previous week, that Neptune had…
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Lunar Transit from STEREO
A million miles from planet Earth, last weekend the STEREO B spacecraft found itself in the shadow of the Moon. So , looking toward the Sun, extreme ultraviolet cameras onboard…
Solar Eclipse from the Moon
Parts of Saturday's (March 3) lunar eclipse will be widely visible. For example, skywatchers in Europe, Africa, and western Asia will be able to see the entire spectacle of the…
Rosetta Over Mars
Panels on ESA's Rosetta spacecraft appear in the foreground of this intriguing image of Mars recorded on February 25 at a range of about 1,000 kilometers. Launched in March 2004,…
Stars, Dust and Nebula in NGC 2170
When stars form, pandemonium reigns. A textbook case is the star forming region NGC 2170 . Visible above are red glowing emission nebulas of hydrogen , blue reflection nebulas of…
Atmospheres Detected for Two Extrasolar Planets
Do extrasolar planets have water? In an attempt to find out, the orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope made detailed observations of the atmospheres of two planets that orbit stars…
A Rocket Debris Cloud Drifts
What's that cloud drifting in space? It's not an astronomical nebula -- those appear to stay put. Atmospheric clouds don't look like this. The answer to last week's sky mystery…
The Far Side of the Moon
Does this moon look familiar? Possibly not, even though it is Earth's Moon. Locked in synchronous rotation, the Moon always presents its well-known near side to Earth. But from…
Viewing discoveries from 20 March 2007 through 25 February 2007.