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.
A Luminous Night
What shines in the world at night ? Just visible to the eye, a rare electric blue glow spread along the shores of Victoria Lake on January 16, 2013. Against reflections of a light…
Spiral Galaxy NGC 6744
Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 6744 is nearly 175,000 light-years across, larger than our own Milky Way . It lies some 30 million light-years distant in the southern…
Rosetta's Rendezvous
On August 3rd, the Rosetta spacecraft's narrow angle camera captured this stunning image of the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko . After 10 years and 6.5 billion…
Saturn's Swirling Cloudscape
Acquiring its first sunlit views of far northern Saturn in late 2012 , the Cassini spacecraft's wide-angle camera recorded this stunning, false-color image of the ringed planet's…
Four Billion BCE: Battered Earth
No place on Earth was safe. Four billion years ago, during the Hadean eon, our Solar System was a dangerous shooting gallery of large and dangerous rocks and ice chunks. Recent…
Shadows and Plumes Across Enceladus
Why does Enceladus have ice plumes? The discovery of jets spewing water vapor and ice was detected by the Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft in 2005. The origin of the water…
Dark Shuttle Approaching
What's that approaching? Astronauts on board the International Space Station first saw it in early 2010 far in the distance. Soon it enlarged to become a dark silhouette . As it…
NGC 7023: The Iris Nebula
These clouds of interstellar dust and gas have blossomed 1,300 light-years away in the fertile star fields of the constellation Cepheus . Sometimes called the Iris Nebula, NGC…
Tetons and Snake River, Planet Earth
An alluring night skyscape , this scene looks west across the Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, USA, Planet Earth. The Snake River glides through the foreground, while above the…
Veins of Heaven
Transfusing sunlight through a still dark sky, this exceptional display of noctilucent clouds was captured earlier this month above the island of Gotland, Sweden. From the edge of…
M31: The Andromeda Galaxy
Andromeda is the nearest major galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy . Our Galaxy is thought to look much like Andromeda . Together these two galaxies dominate the Local Group of…
A Sky Portal in New Zealand
To some, it may look like a portal into the distant universe. To others, it may appear as the eye of a giant. Given poetic license , both are correct. Pictured above is a standard…
The Horsehead Nebula from Blue to Infrared
One of the most identifiable nebulae in the sky, the Horsehead Nebula in Orion , is part of a large, dark, molecular cloud . Also known as Barnard 33, the unusual shape was first…
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…
NGC 253: Dusty Island Universe
Shiny NGC 253 is one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible, and also one of the dustiest. Some call it the Silver Dollar Galaxy for its appearance in small telescopes, or just…
Cosmic Crab Nebula
The Crab Pulsar, a city-sized, magnetized neutron star spinning 30 times a second, lies at the center of this tantalizing wide-field image of the Crab Nebula . A spectacular…
ALMA Milky Way
This alluring all-skyscape was taken 5,100 meters above sea level, from the Chajnantor Plateau in the Chilean Andes. Viewed through the site's rarefied atmosphere at about 50% sea…
IC 4603: Reflection Nebula in Ophiuchius
Why does this starfield photograph resemble an impressionistic painting ? The effect is created not by digital trickery but by large amounts of interstellar dust . Dust, minute…
Cave with Aurora Skylight
Yes, but have you ever seen aurora from a cave? To capture this fascinating juxtaposition between below and above, astrophotographer Bjargmundsson spent much of a night alone in…
Spacecraft Rosetta Shows Comet has Two Components
Why does this comet's nucleus have two components? The surprising discovery that Comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko has a double nucleus came late last week as ESA 's robotic…
A Solar Filament Erupts
What's happened to our Sun? Nothing very unusual -- it just threw a filament . Toward the middle of 2012, a long standing solar filament suddenly erupted into space producing an…
Alicante Beach Moonrise
In this beach and skyscape from Alicante, Spain, July's Full Moon shines in the dark blue twilight, its reflection coloring the Mediterranean waters. Near the horizon, the…
Ou4: A Giant Squid Nebula
A mysterious, squid-like apparition, this nebula is very faint, but also very large in planet Earth's sky. In the mosaic image, composed with narrowband data from the 2.5 meter…
3D Homunculus Nebula
If you're looking for something to print with that new 3D printer, try out a copy of the Homunculus Nebula. The dusty, bipolar cosmic cloud is around 1 light-year across but is…
Viewing discoveries from 9 August 2014 through 17 July 2014.