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.
A Galactic Star Forming Region in Infrared
How do stars form? To help study this complex issue, astronomers took a deep image in infrared light of an active part of our Milky Way Galaxy where star formation is rampant. In…
The Equal Night
Today, the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading south at 0951 UT . Known as the equinox, the astronomical event marks the first day of autumn in the northern hemisphere and…
Pangea Ultima: Earth in 250 Million Years?
Is this what will become of the Earth's surface? The surface of the Earth is broken up into several large plates that are slowly shifting. About 250 million years ago, the plates…
Coronet in the Southern Crown
X-rays from young stars and infrared light from stars and cosmic dust are combined in this false color image of a star-forming region in Corona Australis , the Southern Crown. The…
Northern Cygnus
Bright, hot, supergiant star Deneb lies at top center in this gorgeous skyscape . The 20 frame mosaic spans an impressive 12 degrees across the northern end of Cygnus the Swan .…
4,000 Kilometers Above Saturn's Iapetus
What does the surface of Saturn's mysterious moon Iapetus look like? To help find out, the robotic Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn was sent soaring last week just 2,000…
Tungurahua Erupts
Volcano Tungurahua erupted spectacularly last year. Pictured above , molten rock so hot it glows visibly pours down the sides of the 5,000-meter high Tungurahua , while a cloud of…
Inside Victoria Crater on Mars
NASA's Opportunity rover is now inside Victoria Crater on Mars . Last week the robot rolled about 20 meters into the largest crater any Martian rover has yet encountered, the…
To Fly Free in Space
At about 100 meters from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Challenger, Bruce McCandless II was further out than anyone had ever been before. Guided by a Manned Maneuvering Unit…
Iapetus: 3D Equatorial Ridge
This bizarre, equatorial ridge extending across and beyond the dark, leading hemisphere of Iapetus gives the two-toned Saturnian moon a distinct walnut shape. With red/blue…
Iapetus in Black and White
Iapetus, Saturn's third largest moon, is a candidate for the strangest moon of Saturn. Tidally locked in its orbit around the ringed gas giant, Iapetus is sometimes called the…
NGC 7129 and NGC 7142
This alluring telescopic image looks toward the constellation Cepheus and an intriguing visual pairing of dusty reflection nebula NGC 7129 (left) and open star cluster NGC 7142.…
Six Rainbows Across Norway
Have you ever seen six rainbows at once? They are not only rare to see -- they are a puzzle to understand. The common rainbow is caused by sunlight internally reflected by the…
A Scorpius Sky Spectacular
If Scorpius looked this good to the unaided eye, humans might remember it better. Scorpius more typically appears as a few bright stars in a well known but rarely pointed out…
Building Galaxies in the Early Universe
What was the very early universe like? To help find out, astronomers pointed the Hubble Space Telescope between bright nearby objects to create one of the deepest images ever --…
The Great Basin on Saturn's Tethys
Some moons wouldn't survive the collision. Tethys , one of Saturn's larger moons at about 1000 kilometers in diameter, survived the collision, but sports today the expansive…
The Voyagers' Message in a Bottle
Launched thirty years ago , NASA's Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft are now respectively 15 and 12.5 billion kilometers from the Sun, equivalent to about 14 and 11.5 light-hours…
South Pole Lunar Eclipse
The Moon was up continuously for 14 days in August -- when viewed from the South Pole . But during the total lunar eclipse on August 28, it circled only about 10 degrees above the…
Time Tunnel
Spiky stars are nearby , but fuzzy galaxies are strewn far across the Universe in this cosmic view . Spanning about 1/2 degree on the sky, the pretty picture is the result of…
Aurigids from 47,000 Feet
On September 1, Aurigid meteors filled the sky, in keeping with an innovative prediction of an outburst from this historically tentative meteor shower. The prediction was made by…
A Path Into Victoria Crater
What's inside Victoria Crater? Now that the dust has settled from the regional Martian dust storms that immobilized the rolling Martian rover s, the task ahead has become clear.…
The Colorful Clouds of Rho Ophiuchi
The many spectacular colors of the Rho Ophiuchi (oh'-fee-yu-kee) clouds highlight the many processes that occur there. The blue regions shine primarily by reflected light. Blue…
Lunation
Our Moon's appearance changes nightly. This time-lapse sequence shows what our Moon looks like during a lunation , a complete lunar cycle. As the Moon orbits the Earth , the half…
Kalamalka Lake Eclipse
Recorded on August 28th , this serene total lunar eclipse sequence looks southwest down Kalamalka Lake toward the lights of Coldstream , British Columbia. An exposure every 4…
Viewing discoveries from 24 September 2007 through 1 September 2007.