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.
Potentially Habitable Moons
For astrobiologists , these may be the four most tantalizing moons in our Solar System. Shown at the same scale, their exploration by interplanetary spacecraft has launched the…
Cocoon Nebula Wide Field
In this crowded starfield covering over 2 degrees within the high flying constellation Cygnus , the eye is drawn to the Cocoon Nebula. A compact star forming region, the cosmic…
Aurora over Maine
It has been a good week for auroras. Earlier this month active sunspot region 2158 rotated into view and unleashed a series of flares and plasma ejections into the Solar System…
Milky Way above Atacama Salt Lagoon
Galaxies, stars, and a serene reflecting pool combine to create this memorable land and skyscape. The featured panorama is a 12-image mosaic taken last month from the Salar de…
62 Kilometers above Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Spacecraft Rosetta continues to approach, circle, and map Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Crossing the inner Solar System for ten years to reach the vicinity of the comet last month,…
M27: The Dumbbell Nebula
The first hint of what will become of our Sun was discovered inadvertently in 1764 . At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list of diffuse objects not to be confused with…
Median Mashup: Hubble's Top 100
Now, as you sip your cosmic latte you can view 100 Hubble Space Telescope images at the same time. The popular scenes of the cosmos as captured from low Earth orbit are all…
Supernova Remnant Puppis A
Driven by the explosion of a massive star, supernova remnant Puppis A is blasting into the surrounding interstellar medium about 7,000 light-years away. At that distance, this…
Zodiacal Light before Dawn
You might not guess it, but sunrise was still hours away when this nightscape was taken, a view along the eastern horizon from a remote location in Chile's Atacama desert .…
Laniakea: Our Home Supercluster of Galaxies
It is not only one of the largest structures known -- it is our home. The just-identified Laniakea Supercluster of galaxies contains thousands of galaxies that includes our Milky…
An Aurora Cupcake with a Milky Way Topping
This sky looked delicious. Double auroral ovals were captured above the town lights of stersund , Sweden , last week. Pictured above , the green ovals occurred lower to the ground…
Super Moon vs. Micro Moon
What is so super about tomorrow's supermoon? Tomorrow , a full moon will occur that appears slightly larger and brighter than usual. The reason is that the Moon's fully…
Moonbow Beach
Like a rainbow at night , a beautiful moonbow shines above the western horizon in this deserted beach scene from Molokai Island, Hawaii, USA, planet Earth . Captured last June 17…
A Sagittarius Starscape
This rich starscape spans nearly 7 degrees on the sky, toward the Sagittarius spiral arm and the center of our Milky Way galaxy. A telescopic mosaic , it features well-known…
Cloud, Clusters and Comet Siding Spring
On October 19th, a good place to watch Comet Siding Spring will be from Mars . Then, this inbound visitor (C/2013 A1) to the inner solar system, discovered in January 2013 by…
M6: The Butterfly Cluster
To some, the outline of the open cluster of stars M6 resembles a butterfly. M6 , also known as NGC 6405, spans about 20 light-years and lies about 2,000 light years distant. M6,…
Holometer: A Microscope into Space and Time
How different are space and time at very small scales? To explore the unfamiliar domain of the miniscule Planck scale -- where normally unnoticeable quantum effects might become…
Airglow Ripples over Tibet
Why would the sky look like a giant target? Airglow. Following a giant thunderstorm over Bangladesh in late April, giant circular ripples of glowing air appeared over Tibet ,…
Space Shuttle and Space Station Photographed Together
How was this picture taken? Usually, pictures of the shuttle, taken from space, are snapped from the space station. Commonly, pictures of the space station are snapped from the…
The Starry Sky under Hollow Hill
Look up in New Zealand's Hollow Hill Cave and you might think you see a familiar starry sky . And that's exactly what Arachnocampa luminosa are counting on. Captured in this long…
The Wizard Nebula
Open star cluster NGC 7380 is still embedded in its natal cloud of interstellar gas and dust popularly known as the Wizard Nebula . Seen with foreground and background stars along…
Messier 20 and 21
The beautiful Trifid Nebula, also known as Messier 20, is easy to find with a small telescope in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. About 5,000 light-years away, the…
Milky Way over Yellowstone
The Milky Way was not created by an evaporating lake. The colorful pool of water, about 10 meters across, is known as Silex Spring and is located in Yellowstone National Park in…
Arp 188 and the Tadpole's Tail
Why does this galaxy have such a long tail? In this stunning vista , based on image data from the Hubble Legacy Archive, distant galaxies form a dramatic backdrop for disrupted…
Viewing discoveries from 19 September 2014 through 25 August 2014.