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.
Planets Align Over Australian Radio Telescope Array
Last week, Mercury , Venus , and the Moon all appeared close together in Earth's sky. This picturesque conjunction was caught on camera behind elements of the Australia Telescope…
CMBR Dipole: Speeding Through the Universe
Our Earth is not at rest. The Earth moves around the Sun . The Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way Galaxy . The Milky Way Galaxy orbits in the Local Group of Galaxies . The…
M104 Hubble Remix
The striking spiral galaxy M104 is famous for its nearly edge-on profile featuring a broad ring of obscuring dust. Seen in silhouette against a bright bulge of stars, the swath of…
Comet over California
Still gracing northern skies, a fading Comet Holmes lies at the top edge of this colorful skyview , recorded on March 4. The reddish emission nebula below it is NGC 1499, also…
Vela Supernova Remnant
The plane of our Milky Way Galaxy runs through this complex and beautiful skyscape . At the northwestern edge of the constellation Vela (the Sails) the 16 degree wide, 30 frame…
The International Space Station Expands Again
The developing International Space Station (ISS) has changed its appearance again. Last month, the Space Shuttle orbiter Atlantis visited the ISS and added components that…
NGC 6334: The Cat's Paw Nebula
Nebulae are perhaps as famous for being identified with familiar shapes as perhaps cats are for getting into trouble . Still, no known cat could have created the vast Cat's Paw…
Sand Dunes Thawing on Mars
What are these strange shapes on Mars? Defrosting sand dunes. As spring now dawns on the Northern Hemisphere of Mars, dunes of sand near the pole, as pictured above , are…
Comet Hale-Bopp Over Val Parola Pass
Comet Hale-Bopp , the Great Comet of 1997, became much brighter than any surrounding stars. It was seen even over bright city lights . Away from city lights, however, it put on…
Mauna Kea Shadow Play
Just opposite the setting Sun, the already-eclipsed Moon rose over the Hawaiian Islands on February 20. A view near the 14,000 foot peak of volcanic Mauna Kea on the Big Island, a…
Twelve Lunar Eclipses
Welcome to the extra day in the Gregorian Calendar's leap year 2008! To celebrate, consider this grid of lunar eclipse pictures - starting in leap year 1996 and ending with…
ISS: Sunlight to Shadow
Orbiting 400,000 kilometers above the Earth, the Moon slid into Earth's shadow to begin last week's total lunar eclipse. Of course the International Space Station (ISS) slides…
The Eagle Nebula in Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Sulfur
Bright blue stars are still forming in the dark pillar s of the Eagle Nebula . Made famous by a picture from the Hubble Space Telescope in 1995, the Eagle Nebula shows the…
Mysterious Acid Haze on Venus
Why did an acidic haze spread across Venus? The unusual clouds were discovered last July by ESA 's robotic Venus Express spacecraft currently orbiting Venus . The bright and…
Dawn of the LargeHadronCollider
Why do objects have mass? To help find out, Europe 's CERN has built the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the most powerful particle accelerator yet created by humans . This May, the…
NGC 4676: When Mice Collide
These two mighty galaxies are pulling each other apart. Known as “ The Mice ” because they have such long tails, each spiral galaxy has likely already passed through the other.…
Stereo Space Station
Get out your red-blue glasses and float next to the International Space Station (ISS), planet Earth's largest artificial moon. This fun stereo view was constructed from parts of…
Eclipsed Moonlight
Moon watchers blessed with clear skies over the Americas, Europe, Africa and western Asia enjoyed a total lunar eclipse this week. Catching eclipsed moonlight, astroimager Jerry…
Orion's Horsehead Nebula
The Horsehead Nebula is one of the most famous nebulae on the sky. It is visible as the dark indentation to the red emission nebula seen just below and left of center in the this…
Moon Slide Slim
No special filters - or even a telescope - are required to enjoy a leisurely lunar eclipse . In fact, watched from all over the night side of planet Earth, these regular celestial…
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…
Viewing discoveries from 10 March 2008 through 16 February 2008.