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.
RCW 79: Stars in a Bubble
A cosmic bubble of gas and dust, RCW 79 has grown to about 70 light-years in diameter, blown by the winds and radiation from hot young stars. Infrared light from the dust embedded…
Manhattanhenge: A New York Sunset
Today, if it is clear, well placed New Yorkers can go outside at sunset and watch their city act like a modern version of Stonehenge. Manhattan will flood dramatically with…
NGC 6384: Beyond the Stars
The universe is filled with galaxies . But to see them astronomers must look out beyond the stars of our galaxy, the Milky Way . For example, consider this colorful telescopic…
Constellations and Cloudy Skies
Recorded earlier in July, the clouds of planet Earth reflect moonlight and a faint, reddish glow in this serene sea and skyscape. Beyond them lie the cosmic dust and star clouds…
NGC 4449: Close-Up of a Small Galaxy
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.…
The Most Distant Sun
When is the Sun most distant from Earth? It happened again just this past weekend. A common misconception is that the Sun is most distant during the winter, when it's the coldest.…
Shuttle Ferry
How does a space shuttle that landed in California get back to Florida for its next launch ? The answer is by ferry. NASA operates two commercial Boeing 747 airplanes modified to…
Infrared Trifid
The Trifid Nebula, aka Messier 20 , is easy to find with a small telescope, a well known stop in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius . But where visible light pictures show…
Bright Galaxy NGC 2903
Spiral galaxy NGC 2903 is only some 20 million light-years distant in the constellation Leo . One of the brighter galaxies visible from the northern hemisphere, it is surprisingly…
Night-Shining Clouds
Alluring noctilucent or night-shining clouds lie near the edge of space, some 80 kilometers above Earth's surface. Of course, when viewed from space the clouds are more properly…
Red, White, and Blue Sky
Contrasting colors in this beautiful sunset sky were captured on June 30 from Clear Creek Canyon Observatory in central Arizona, USA. The twilight scene includes brilliant Venus…
At the Edge of Victoria Crater
We're going in. The robotic Opportunity rover currently rolling across Mars has been prowling around the edge of the largest crater it has visited since landing over three years…
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Zooming in to the Pelican Nebula
Where is the Pelican Nebula? APOD features many objects in the night sky , but usually does not have the resources to show where each one lies. Today, thanks to inventive digital…
Steep Cliffs on Mars
Vertical cliffs of nearly two kilometers occur near the North Pole of Mars. Also visible in the above image of the Martian North Polar Cap are red areas of rock and sand, white…
Jumbled Galaxy Centaurus A
At the center of this sharp skyscape , Centaurus A seems to be a fantastic jumble of old yellow stars, young blue star clusters, and imposing dark dust lanes. Spanning over 60,000…
Cat's Eye Wide and Deep
The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae in the sky. Its more familiar outlines are seen in the brighter central region of this impressive…
A Visit from Atlantis
This remarkable image of the space shuttle orbiter Atlantis docked with the International Space Station ( ISS ) was taken at a range of 190 nautical miles . To record the fast…
Neon Saturn
If seen in the right light, Saturn glows like a neon sign. Although Saturn has comparatively little of the element neon , a composite image false-colored in three bands of…
Wisps of the Iris Nebula
Like delicate cosmic petals, these clouds of interstellar dust and gas have blossomed 1,300 light-years away in the fertile star fields of the constellation Cepheus . Sometimes…
The International Space Station Expands Again
The developing International Space Station (ISS) has changed its appearance again. During the past week, the Space Shuttle Atlantis visited the ISS and added pieces of the…
All the Colors of the Sun
It is still not known why the Sun's light is missing some colors. Shown above are all the visible colors of the Sun , produced by passing the Sun's light through a prism -like…
3D Barringer Meteorite Crater
Barringer Meteorite Crater , near Winslow, Arizona, is one of the best known impact craters on planet Earth . View this color stereo anaglyph with red/blue glasses to get a…
Small Worlds Ceres and Vesta
Ceres and Vesta are, respectively, only around 950 kilometers and 530 kilometers in diameter - about the size of Texas and Arizona. But they are two of the largest of over 100,000…
Stars and the Solstice Sun
If you could turn off the atmosphere's ability to scatter overwhelming sunlight, today's daytime sky might look something like this ... with the Sun surrounded by the stars of the…
Viewing discoveries from 14 July 2007 through 21 June 2007.