Browse NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day archive by date and media: Archive Discoveries
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Columbus Laboratory Installed on Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) has been equipped with a powerful new scientific laboratory. The Space Shuttle Atlantis delivered the Columbus Laboratory to the ISS and…
BLG-109: A Distant Version of our own Solar System
How common are planetary systems like our own? Perhaps quite common, as the first system of planets like our own Solar System has been discovered using a newly adapted technique…
M1: The Crab Nebula from Hubble
This is the mess that is left when a star explodes. The Crab Nebula , the result of a supernova seen in 1054 AD , is filled with mysterious filaments. The filaments are not only…
Large Binocular Telescope
With moonlight on the horizon, a starry sky and the northern Milky Way provide the background for this dramatic view of the World at Night . The imposing structure in the…
Young Stars in the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud
Cosmic dust clouds and embedded newborn stars glow at infrared wavelengths in this tantalizing false-color view from the Spitzer Space Telescope. Pictured is of one of the closest…
Long Stem Rosette
The Rosette Nebula (aka NGC 2237) is not the only cosmic cloud of gas and dust to evoke the imagery of flowers . But it is the one most often suggested as a suitable astronomy…
Elliptical Galaxy NGC 1132
NGC 1132 is one smooth galaxy -- but how did it form? As an elliptical galaxy , NGC 1132 has little dust and gas, and few stars have formed in it recently. Although many…
Echoes from RS Pup
This dusty reflection nebula surrounds pulsating star RS Pup, some 10 times more massive than the Sun and on average 15,000 times more luminous. In fact, RS Pup is a Cepheid type…
Saturn's Moon Epimetheus from the Cassini Spacecraft
How did Epimetheus form? No one is yet sure. To help answer that question, this small moon has recently been imaged again in great detail by the robot spacecraft Cassini now…
Abell 2218: A Galaxy Cluster Lens
Gravity can bend light, allowing huge clusters of galaxies to act as telescopes. Almost all of the bright objects in this Hubble Space Telescope image are galaxies in the cluster…
Atlantis on Pad 39A
An intricate network of lighting plays across the 130 foot high Rotating Service Structure (RSS) in this dramatic night view of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on the Kennedy Space…
The Bay of Rainbows
Dark, smooth regions that cover the Moon's familiar face are called by Latin names for oceans and seas. The naming convention is historical , though it may seem a little ironic to…
NGC 4013 and the Tidal Stream
Nearly 50 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major, NGC 4013 was long considered an isolated island universe . Seen edge-on, the gorgeous spiral galaxy was known…
Sunspot in the Old Solar Cycle
A new cycle has begun on our Sun. Over the past year, the Sun's magnetic field has reset and now a new 11 year period is beginning. Pictured above in a specific color of light…
Three Month Composite of Comet Holmes
How has Comet Holmes changed? Since brightening unexpectedly by nearly one million fold in late October, the last three months have found the coma of Comet 17P/Holmes both…
A Spider Shaped Crater on Mercury
Why does this crater on Mercury look like a spider? When the robotic MESSENGER spacecraft glided by the planet Mercury last month, it was able to image portions of the Sun's…
Light Echoes from V838 Mon
What caused this outburst of V838 Mon? For reasons unknown, star V838 Mon 's outer surface suddenly greatly expanded with the result that it became the brightest star in the…
Venus and Jupiter in Morning Skies
These two celestial beacons shining brightly in the east before sunrise are actually children of the Sun , the planets Venus and Jupiter. The second and third brightest objects in…
The First Explorer
Fifty years ago (on January 31, 1958) the First Explorer , was launched into Earth orbit by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency. Inaugurating the era of space exploration for the…
Young Star Cluster Westerlund 2
Dusty stellar nursery RCW 49 surrounds young star cluster Westerlund 2 in this remarkable composite skyscape from beyond the visible spectrum of light. Infrared data from the…
Asteroid 2007 TU24 Passes the Earth
Asteroid 2007 TU24 passed by the Earth yesterday, posing no danger. The space rock, estimated to be about 250 meters across, coasted by just outside the orbit of Earth's Moon. The…
West Valley Panorama from the Spirit Rover on Mars
What does Mars look like from here? Last September, before hiking across rugged and slippery terrain to reach its winter hibernation point, the robotic Spirit rover climbed a…
A Solar Eclipse Painting from the 1700s
Is this painting the earliest realistic depiction of a total eclipse of the Sun? Some historians believe it is. The above painting was completed in 1735 by Cosmas Damian Asam , a…
Mercury on the Horizon
Have you ever seen the planet Mercury? Because Mercury orbits so close to the Sun, it never wanders far from the Sun in Earth's sky . If trailing the Sun, Mercury will be visible…
Viewing discoveries from 19 February 2008 through 27 January 2008.