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.
Falcon 9 Launches to Orbit
A new rocket, the Falcon 9, was launched successfully from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, last week. The Falcon 9, standing about as high as a 15-floor building, was developed by…
Comet McNaught Becoming Visible to the Unaided Eye
A new comet is brightening and is now expected to become visible to the unaided eye later this month. C/2009 R1 (McNaught) is already showing an impressive tail and is currently…
Lunokhod: Reflections on a Moon Robot
It may look like some sort of cute alien robot, but it was created here on Earth, launched to the Moon in 1970, and now reflects laser light in a scientifically useful way. On…
Thor's Helmet
This helmet-shaped cosmic cloud with wing-like appendages is popularly called Thor's Helmet . Heroically sized even for a Norse god , Thor's Helmet is about 30 light-years across.…
Hubble Remix: Active Galaxy NGC 1275
Active galaxy NGC 1275 is the central, dominant member of the large and relatively nearby Perseus Cluster of Galaxies . Wild-looking at visible wavelengths, the active galaxy is…
Jupiter from the Stratosphere
SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy , captured its “first light” images on May 26, from an altitude of 35,000 feet. While flying above most of planet…
A Twisted Meteor Trail Over Tenerife
Did this meteor take a twisting path? No one is sure. Considered opinions are solicited. Meteors, usually sand sized grains that originate in comets, will typically disintegrate…
WISE: Heart and Soul Nebulas in Infrared
Is the heart and soul of our Galaxy located in Cassiopeia ? Possibly not, but that is where two bright emission nebulas nicknamed Heart and Soul can be found. The Heart Nebula ,…
Moons and Rings Before Saturn
While cruising around Saturn, be on the lookout for picturesque juxtapositions of moons and rings. Another striking alignment occurred last March in the view of humanity's…
The Galactic Center in Infrared from 2MASS
The center of our Galaxy is a busy place. In visible light , much of the Galactic Center is obscured by opaque dust . In infrared light , however, dust glows more and obscures…
Black Holes in Merging Galaxies
Violent galaxy mergers can feed supermassive black holes. Theoretically, the result is intense emission from regions near the supermassive black holes, creating the some of the…
Atlantis over Rhodes
A moonlit chapel stands in the foreground of this night-scape from the historic Greek island of Rhodes . The tantalizing sky above features a colorful lunar corona , where bright…
M13: The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules
In 1716 , English astronomer Edmond Halley noted, “This is but a little Patch, but it shews itself to the naked Eye, when the Sky is serene and the Moon absent.” Of course, M13 is…
Clouds and Stars over Cotopaxi Volcano in Ecuador
What's happening above the Cotopaxi volcano in Ecuador? Quite a bit, from the looks of the above one-night, time-lapse movie, taken earlier this month. The majestic volcano is…
Looking Back Across Mars
It's been a long trip for the Martian rover Opportunity. Last week Opportunity surpassed Viking 1 as the longest running mission on Mars, now extending well over six years.…
Rho Ophiuchi Wide Field
The clouds surrounding the star system Rho Ophiuchi compose one of the closest star forming regions. Rho Ophiuchi itself is a binary star system visible in the light-colored…
Station and Shuttle Transit the Sun
That's no sunspot. On the upper right of the above image of the Sun, the dark patches are actually the International Space Station (ISS) and the Space Shuttle Atlantis on mission…
Dark Filament of the Sun
Suspended by magnetic fields above a solar active region this dark filament stretches over 40 earth-diameters . The ominous structure appears to be frozen in time near the Sun's…
Calm, Crescent Moon, and Venus
Last weekend, the Moon and Venus formed a beautiful close pair in the west after sunset , a scene enjoyed by skygazers all over the world. In this lovely view of the conjunction…
M87: Elliptical Galaxy with Jet
In spiral galaxies , majestic winding arms of young stars, gas, and dust rotate in a flat disk around a bulging galactic nucleus. But elliptical galaxies seem to be simpler.…
Milky Way Over Ancient Ghost Panel
Long before Stonehenge was built, well before the Dead Sea Scrolls were written, ancient artists painted life-sized figures on canyon walls in Utah , USA -- but why? Nobody is…
Tentacles of the Tarantula Nebula
The largest, most violent star forming region known in the whole Local Group of galaxies lies in our neighboring galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). Were the Tarantula Nebula…
Panorama of the Whale Galaxy
The see the full length of this blue whale, scroll right. NGC 4631 is a big beautiful spiral galaxy seen edge-on at only about 30 million light-years away. This galaxy's slightly…
Crescent Venus and Moon
There's something behind these clouds. Those faint graceful arcs, upon inspection, are actually far, far in the distance. They are the Earth's Moon and the planet Venus . Both the…
Viewing discoveries from 8 June 2010 through 16 May 2010.