Browse NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day archive by date and media: Archive Discoveries
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Blue Moon Eclipse
The International Year of Astronomy 2009 ended with a Blue Moon and a partial lunar eclipse , as the second Full Moon of December grazed the Earth's shadow on December 31st. The…
Not a Blue Moon
This bright Full Moon was captured on December 2nd, shining above a church overlooking the River Po, in Turin, Italy. It was the first Full Moon in December. Shining on…
Dust and the Helix Nebula
Dust makes this cosmic eye look red. The eerie Spitzer Space Telescope image shows infrared radiation from the well-studied Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) a mere 700 light-years away in…
Spitzer's M101
Big, beautiful spiral galaxy M101 is one of the last entries in Charles Messier's famous catalog, but definitely not one of the least. About 170,000 light-years across, this…
Rigel and the Witch Head Nebula
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble -- maybe Macbeth should have consulted the Witch Head Nebula. This suggestively shaped reflection nebula on the…
Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 6217
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 6217, pictured…
The Cat's Eye Nebula
Three thousand light-years away, a dying star throws off shells of glowing gas. This image from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals the Cat's Eye Nebula to be one of the most…
M51 Hubble Remix
The 51st entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog is perhaps the original spiral nebula - a large galaxy with a well defined spiral structure also cataloged as NGC 5194. Over…
A Graceful Arc
The graceful arc of the Milky Way begins and ends at two mountain peaks in this solemn night sky panorama. The view was created from a 24 frame mosaic, with exposures tracking…
Gamma Cas and Friends
Gamma Cassiopeiae shines high in northern autumn evening skies. The brightest spiky star in this rich and colorful Milky Way starfield, bluish Gamma Cas marks the central peak in…
December Sunrise, Cape Sounion
The Sun is a moving target . Its annual motion through planet Earth's sky tracks north and south, from solstice to solstice, as the seasons change . On December 21st, the solstice…
Planetary Systems Now Forming in Orion
How do planets form? To help find out, the Hubble Space Telescope was tasked to take a detailed look at one of the more interesting of all astronomical nebulae, the Great Nebula…
Star Cluster R136 Bursts Out
In the center of star-forming region 30 Doradus lies a huge cluster of the largest, hottest, most massive stars known. These stars, known collectively as star cluster R136 , were…
Tutulemma: Solar Eclipse Analemma
If you went outside at exactly the same time every day and took a picture that included the Sun, how would the Sun appear to move? With great planning and effort, such a series of…
Aurora Shimmer, Meteor Flash
Northern Lights , or aurora borealis, haunted skies over the island of Kvaløya, near Tromsø Norway on December 13. This 30 second long exposure records their shimmering glow…
Southern Geminids
At least 34 meteors are included in this composite image as they rain through Australian skies during the annual Geminid Meteor shower . Dust particles strung out along the orbit…
Mojave Desert Fireball
Monstrously bright, this fireball meteor lit up the Mojave Desert sky Monday morning, part of this year's impressive Geminid meteor shower . Seen toward the southwest over rock…
Comet Hyakutake Passes the Earth
In 1996, an unexpectedly bright comet passed by planet Earth. Discovered less than two months before, Comet C/1996 B2 Hyakutake came within only 1/10th of the Earth-Sun distance…
A Fading Moonset Over Hong Kong
Do stars appear dimmer when nearer the horizon? Yes -- atmospheric air absorbs and reradiates light, so that the greater the airmass through which one peers, the fainter an object…
Saturns Hexagon Comes to Light
Believe it or not, this is the North Pole of Saturn. It is unclear how an unusual hexagonal cloud system that surrounds Saturn's north pole was created, keeps its shape, or how…
Crescent Neptune and Triton
Gliding silently through the outer Solar System , the Voyager 2 spacecraft camera captured Neptune and Triton together in crescent phase in 1989. The above picture of the gas…
Geminid Meteor over Monument Valley
The Geminids are expected to put on a good show this year. Created as planet Earth sweeps through dusty debris from extinct comet Phaethon , the annual Geminid meteor shower is…
Messier Craters in Stereo
Many bright nebulae and star clusters in planet Earth's sky are associated with the name of astronomer Charles Messier , from his famous 18th century catalog. His name is also…
The Colors of IC 1795
This colorful cosmic portrait features glowing gas and obscuring dust clouds in IC 1795, a star forming region in the northern constellation Cassiopeia. The nebula's colors were…
Viewing discoveries from 2 January 2010 through 10 December 2009.