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.
On the Road to Carina
This rugged road through the dark Atacama Desert seems to lead skyward toward the bright stars and glowing nebulae of the southern Milky Way. If you follow the road you will get…
At the West Wall of Aristarchus Crater
Aristarchus Plateau is anchored in the vast lava flows of the Moon's Oceanus Procellarum . At the plateau's southeastern edge lies the spectacular Aristarchus Crater , an impact…
NGC 5965 and NGC 5963 in Draco
These two spiral galaxies make a photogenic pair, found within the boundaries of the northern constellation Draco . Contrasting in color and orientation, NGC 5965 is nearly…
Merope's Reflection Nebula
Reflection nebulas reflect light from a nearby star. Many small carbon grains in the nebula reflect the light. The blue color typical of reflection nebula is caused by blue light…
The Rosette Nebula
The Rosette Nebula is not the only cosmic cloud of gas and dust to evoke the imagery of flowers -- but it is the most famous. At the edge of a large molecular cloud in Monoceros,…
An Unusual Venusian Oval
Why would Venus appear oval? Venus has been seen countless times from the surface of the Earth, and every time the Earth's atmosphere has dispersed its light to some degree. When…
Orion in Gas, Dust, and Stars
The constellation of Orion holds much more than three stars in a row. A deep exposure shows everything from dark nebula to star clusters, all embedded in an extended patch of…
A February Moon's Halo
Lighting the night last Tuesday, February's Full Moon is sometimes called the Snow Moon. But the Moon was not quite full in this mosaicked skyscape recorded on February 2 south of…
At the Core of NGC 6752
This sharp Hubble Space Telescope view looks deep into NGC 6752 . Some 13,000 light-years away toward the southern constellation Pavo, the globular star cluster roams the halo of…
Trees, Stars, Aurora!
Have you ever seen an aurora? Auroras are occurring again with increasing frequency. With the Sun being unusually dormant over the past four years, the amount of Sun-induced…
Enceladus Backlit by Saturn
This moon is shining by the light of its planet. Specifically, a large portion of Enceladus pictured above is illuminated primarily by sunlight first reflected from the planet…
The Belt of Venus Over Mercedes, Argentina
Although you've surely seen it, you might not have noticed it. During a cloudless twilight , just before sunrise or after sunset , part of the atmosphere above the horizon appears…
Dust of the Orion Nebula
What surrounds a hotbed of star formation? In the case of the Orion Nebula -- dust. The entire Orion field , located about 1600 light years away, is inundated with intricate and…
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…
Comet Garradd and M92
Sweeping slowly through the constellation Hercules, Comet Garradd (C2009/P1) passed with about 0.5 degrees of globular star cluster M92 on February 3. Captured here in its latest…
Inside the Eagle Nebula
In 1995, a now famous picture from the Hubble Space Telescope featured Pillars of Creation, star forming columns of cold gas and dust light-years long inside M16, the Eagle Nebula…
La Silla Star Trails North and South
Fix your camera to a tripod and you can record graceful trails traced by the stars as planet Earth rotates on its axis . If the tripod is set up at ESO's La Silla Observatory ,…
Red Aurora Over Australia
Why would the sky glow red? Aurora . Last week's solar storms, emanating mostly from active sunspot region 1402 , showered particles on the Earth that excited oxygen atoms high in…
The Helix Nebula from the VISTA Telescope
Will our Sun look like this one day? The Helix Nebula is one of brightest and closest examples of a planetary nebula , a gas cloud created at the end of the life of a Sun-like…
Blue Marble Earth from Suomi NPP
Behold one of the more detailed images of the Earth yet created. This Blue Marble Earth montage shown above -- created from photographs taken by the Visible/Infrared Imager…
Molecular Cloud Barnard 68
Where did all the stars go? What used to be considered a hole in the sky is now known to astronomers as a dark molecular cloud . Here, a high concentration of dust and molecular…
Planet Aurora Borealis
Illuminated by an eerie greenish light, this remarkable little planet is covered with ice and snow and ringed by tall pine trees. Of course , this little planet is actually planet…
NGC 3239 and SN 2012A
About 40,000 light-years across, pretty, irregular galaxy NGC 3239 lies near the center of this lovely field of galaxies in the galaxy rich constellation Leo . At a distance of…
NGC 4449: Star Stream for a Dwarf Galaxy
A mere 12.5 million light-years from Earth, irregular dwarf galaxy NGC 4449 lies within the confines of Canes Venatici , the constellation of the Hunting Dogs. About the size of…
Viewing discoveries from 18 February 2012 through 26 January 2012.