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.
Small Galaxy NGC 4449
Grand spiral galaxies often seem to get all the glory. Their newly formed, bright, blue star clusters along beautiful, symmetric spiral arms are guaranteed to attract attention .…
Sunrise from the Surface of Gliese 581c
How might a sunrise appear on Gliese 581c? One artistic guess is shown above. Gliese 581c is the most Earth-like planet yet discovered and lies a mere 20 light-years distant. The…
Swirling Clouds Over the South Pole of Venus
What's happening over the South Pole of Venus? To find out, scientists sent the robot Venus Express spacecraft now orbiting Venus directly over the lower spin axis of Earth's…
Dust Pillar of the Carina Nebula
Inside the head of this interstellar monster is a star that is slowly destroying it. The monster, actually an inanimate pillar of gas and dust , measures over a light year in…
NGC 6302: Big, Bright, Bug Nebula
The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often named for flowers or insects , and NGC 6302 is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about…
Young Moon and Sister Stars
A young crescent Moon shared the western sky with thin clouds and the sister stars of the Pleiades cluster in this early evening skyscape recorded on April 19th. Astronomical…
M81 in Ursa Major
One of the brightest galaxies in planet Earth's sky and similar in size to the Milky Way , big, beautiful spiral M81 lies 11.8 million light-years away in the northern…
Gliese 581 and the Habitable Zone
The unremarkable star centered in this skyview is Gliese 581, a mere 20 light-years away toward the constellation Libra . But astronomers are now reporting the discovery of a…
Carina Nebula Panorama from Hubble
In one of the brightest parts of Milky Way lies a nebula where some of the oddest things occur. NGC 3372, known as the Great Nebula in Carina , is home to massive stars and…
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…
Viewing discoveries from 3 May 2007 through 10 April 2007.