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.
Millions of Stars in Omega Centauri
Globular star cluster Omega Centauri , also known as NGC 5139, is some 15,000 light-years away. The cluster is packed with about 10 million stars much older than the Sun within a…
The Cone Nebula from Hubble
Stars are forming in the gigantic dust pillar called the Cone Nebula. Cones, pillars , and majestic flowing shapes abound in stellar nurseries where natal clouds of gas and dust…
Star Factory Messier 17
What's happening at the center of this nebula? Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, the star factory known as Messier 17 lies some 5,500 light-years away in the nebula-rich…
An ALMA Telescope Array Time-Lapse
It is the most expensive and complex ground-based astronomy project ever -- what will it see tonight? The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) project consists of 66 dishes, many…
Camelopardalids and ISS
From a camp on the northern shores of the Great Lake Erie, three short bright meteor streaks were captured in this composited night skyscape. Recorded over the early morning hours…
A Circumhorizontal Arc Over Ohio
Why would clouds appear to be different colors? The reason here is that ice crystals in distant cirrus clouds are acting like little floating prisms . Sometimes known as a fire…
Rosetta's Target Comet
The Rosetta spacecraft captured this remarkable series of 9 frames between March 27 and May 4, as it closed from 5 million to 2 million kilometers of its target comet. Cruising…
A Halo for NGC 6164
Beautiful emission nebula NGC 6164 was created by a rare, hot, luminous O-type star, some 40 times as massive as the Sun. Seen at the center of the cosmic cloud, the star is a…
A Supercell Storm Cloud Forming over Wyoming
How do supercell storm clouds form? Pictured above is a time-lapse video taken last Sunday detailing the formation of one such violent supercell in eastern Wyoming, USA. Starting…
In the Center of Spiral Galaxy M61
M61 is a barred spiral galaxy located in the nearby Virgo Cluster of Galaxies . Visible in M61 are a host of features common to spiral galaxies : bright spiral arms , a central…
Meteors, Planes, and a Galaxy over Bryce Canyon
Sometimes land and sky are both busy and beautiful. The landscape pictured in the foreground encompasses Bryce Canyon in Utah , USA , famous for its many interesting rock…
Jupiter's Great Red Spot from Voyager 1
What will become of Jupiter's Great Red Spot? Recorded as shrinking since the 1930s, the rate of the Great Red Spot 's size appears to have accelerated just in the past few years.…
Hubble's Jupiter and the Amazing Shrinking Great Red Spot
Gas giant Jupiter is the solar system's largest world with about 320 times the mass of planet Earth . It's also known for a giant swirling storm system, the Great Red Spot ,…
Opportunity's Mars Analemma
Staring up into the martian sky, the Opportunity rover captured an image at 11:02 AM local mean time nearly every 3rd sol, or martian day, for 1 martian year. Of course, the…
Voyager's Neptune
Cruising through the outer solar system, the Voyager 2 spacecraft made its closest approach to Neptune on August 25, 1989, the only spacecraft to visit the most distant ice giant…
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A Live View from the International Space Station
If you were floating above the Earth right now, this is what you might see. Two weeks ago, the robotic SpaceX Dragon capsule that delivered supplies to the Earth-orbiting…
CG4: A Ruptured Cometary Globule
Can a gas cloud grab a galaxy? It's not even close. The “claw” of this odd looking “creature” in the above photo is a gas cloud known as a cometary globule . This globule,…
Illustris Simulation of the Universe
How did we get here? Click play, sit back, and watch. A new computer simulation of the evolution of the universe -- the largest and most sophisticated yet produced -- provides new…
Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars
The largest canyon in the Solar System cuts a wide swath across the face of Mars . Named Valles Marineris , the grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as…
Inside the Flame Nebula
The Flame Nebula stands out in this optical image of the dusty, crowded star forming regions toward Orion's belt , a mere 1,400 light-years away. X-ray data from the Chandra…
Halley Dust and Milky Way
The early morning hours of May 6 were moonless when grains of cosmic dust streaked through dark skies. Swept up as planet Earth plows through dusty debris streams left behind…
The Tail of the Hamburger Galaxy
Sharp telescopic views of NGC 3628 show a puffy galactic disk divided by dark dust lanes. Of course, this deep portrait of the magnificent, edge-on spiral galaxy puts some…
Curiosity Inspects Mt. Remarkable on Mars
What has the Curiosity rover come across on Mars? Dubbed Mount Remarkable, the rolling robot has chanced upon this notable 5-meter tall mound during its continuing journey around…
Orange Sun Sparking
Our Sun has become quite a busy place. Taken only two weeks ago, the Sun was captured sporting numerous tumultuous regions including active sunspot regions AR 2036 near the image…
Viewing discoveries from 29 May 2014 through 6 May 2014.