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.
The Sun in Three Dimensions
What does the Sun look like in all three spatial dimensions? To find out, NASA launched two STEREO satellites to perceive three dimensions on the Sun much like two eyes allow…
A Supply Ship Approaches the Space Station
Looking out a window of the International Space Station brings breathtaking views. Visible vistas include a vast and colorful Earth, a deep dark sky, and an occasional spaceship…
Smooth Sections of Asteroid Itokawa
Why are parts of this asteroid's surface so smooth? No one is yet sure, but it may have to do with the dynamics of an asteroid that is a loose pile of rubble rather than a solid…
3D Face on Mars
Get out your red/blue glasses and gaze down on this weathered mesa on Mars. Of course, described as a rock formation that resembles a human head in a 1976 NASA press release, this…
Pantheon Earth and Moon
Could this be a picture of the Earth and Moon from space ? It certainly looks like it at first glance, with a cratered Moon standing off from planet Earth's lovely blue disk…
NGC 5139: Omega Centauri
Centaurus is one of the most striking constellations in the southern sky. The Milky Way flows through this celestial expanse whose wonders also include the closest star system to…
Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1672
Many spiral galaxies have bars across their centers. Even our own Milky Way Galaxy is thought to have a modest central bar . Prominently barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672, pictured…
Water Claimed in Evaporating Planet HD 209458b
Planet HD 209458b is evaporating. It is so close to its parent star that its heated atmosphere is simply expanding away into space. Some astronomers studying this distant…
MWC 922: The Red Square Nebula
What could cause a nebula to appear square? No one is quite sure. The hot star system known as MWC 922 , however, appears to be imbedded in a nebula with just such a shape. The…
M3: Inconstant Star Cluster
Star clusters appear constant because photographs of them are frozen in time. In reality, though, cluster stars swarm the center and frequently fluctuate in brightness. Although…
Venus by the Lake
Finding Venus in the night sky is not too hard these days. Now appearing as the evening star, Venus rules as the brightest celestial beacon in west just after sunset . And if you…
Seven Dusty Sisters
Hurtling through a cosmic dust cloud a mere 400 light-years away, the lovely Pleiades or Seven Sisters star cluster is well-known in astronomical images for its striking blue…
The Cone Nebula Neighborhood
Cosmic clouds of hydrogen gas and dust abound in this gorgeous skyscape , stretching through Monoceros in the neighborhood of The Cone Nebula . A dark, obscuring dust cloud, the…
The Arms of NGC 4258
Better known as M106 , bright spiral galaxy NGC 4258 is about 30 thousand light years across and 21 million light years away toward the northern constellation Canes Venatici . The…
Saturn from Below
Swooping below Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft spied several strange wonders. Visible in the distance are some of the many complex rings that orbit the Solar System 's second…
Aurora Over Alaska
Higher than the highest mountain , higher than the highest airplane , lies the realm of the aurora . Aurora rarely reach below 60 kilometers, and can range up to 1000 kilometers.…
The View from Everest
What would it be like to stand atop the tallest mountain on Earth? To see a full panoramic vista from there, scroll right. Visible are snow peaked mountains near and far,…
Three Years of Saturn
Using an image recorded just last month as a base, this composite illustration tracks the motion of bright Saturn as it wanders through planet Earth's night sky . Starting at the…
Four Years of Saturn
Saturn and its magnificent ring system can offer even casual astronomers the most memorable of telescopic sights. Wandering between Leo and Cancer this month , a bright Saturn is…
Asteroid and Galaxy
Apollo class asteroid 2006 VV2 flashed past planet Earth in late March, approaching to within 3.4 million kilometers or about 8.8 times the Earth-Moon distance. Due to the…
New Horizons at Io
Spewed from a volcano , a complex plume rises over 300 kilometers above the horizon of Jupiter's moon Io in this image from cameras onboard the New Horizons spacecraft. The…
A Mysterious Hexagonal Cloud System on Saturn
Why would clouds form a hexagon on Saturn? Nobody is yet sure. Originally discovered during the Voyager flybys of Saturn in the 1980s, nobody has ever seen anything like it…
An Active Sunspot Viewed Sideways
Why are there dark spots on the sun? Although noted for thousands of years, sunspots have been known for decades to be regions of the Sun that are slightly depressed and cooled by…
Americans Defeat Russians in First Space Quidditch Match
A historic first Space Quidditch match came to a spectacular conclusion last night as astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria caught the Golden Snitch to give the Americans a hard fought…
Viewing discoveries from 24 April 2007 through 1 April 2007.