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.
The Fornax Cluster of Galaxies
Named for the southern constellation toward which most of its galaxies can be found, the Fornax Cluster is one of the closest clusters of galaxies. About 62 million light-years…
NGC 6888: The Crescent Nebula
NGC 6888, also known as the Crescent Nebula, is a cosmic bubble about 25 light-years across, blown by winds from its central, bright, massive star. This sharp telescopic portrait…
Pluto at Night
The night side of Pluto spans this shadowy scene . The spacebased view with the Sun behind the distant world was captured by New Horizons last July . The spacecraft was at a range…
The Horsehead Nebula in Infrared from Hubble
While drifting through the cosmos, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud became sculpted by stellar winds and radiation to assume a recognizable shape. Fittingly named the…
Night on Venus in Infrared from Orbiting Akatsuki
Why is Venus so different from Earth? To help find out, Japan launched the robotic Akatsuki spacecraft which entered orbit around Venus late last year after an unplanned five-year…
The Supernova and Cepheids of Spiral Galaxy UGC 9391
What can this galaxy tell us about the expansion rate of the universe? Perhaps a lot because UGC 9391, featured , not only contains Cepheid variable stars (red circles) but also a…
Comet PanSTARRS and the Helix Nebula
It's rare that such different objects are imaged so close together . Such an occasion is occurring now , though, and was captured two days ago in combined parallel exposures from…
The Shadow of Surveyor 1
Fifty years ago , Surveyor 1 reached the Moon. Launched on May 30, 1966 and landed on June 2, 1966 with the Moon at full phase it became the first US spacecraft to make a soft…
NGC 4631: The Whale Galaxy
NGC 4631 is a big beautiful spiral galaxy. Seen edge-on , it lies only 25 million light-years away in the well-trained northern constellation Canes Venatici . The galaxy's…
Three Planets from Pic du Midi
Seen any planets lately ? All three planets now shining brightly in the night sky are imaged in these panels, captured last week with the 1 meter telescope at Pic du Midi…
Tycho's Supernova Remnant Expands
What star created this huge expanding puffball? Featured here is the first expansion movie ever created for Tycho's supernova remnant, the result of a stellar explosion first…
Stars and Gas of the Running Chicken Nebula
To some, it looks like a giant chicken running across the sky. To others, it looks like a gaseous nebula where star formation takes place. Cataloged as IC 2944 , the Running…
Galaxy Evolution Tracking Animation
How did the universe evolve from such a smooth beginning? To help understand, computational cosmologists and NASA produced the featured time-lapse animated video depicting a…
Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars
Mars will look good in Earth's skies over the next few days -- but not this good. To get a view this amazing , a spacecraft had to actually visit the red planet. Running across…
Cat's Eye Wide and Deep
The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae in the sky. Its more familiar outlines are seen in the brighter central region of the nebula in this…
The Great Carina Nebula
A jewel of the southern sky, the Great Carina Nebula , also known as NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years, one of our galaxy's largest star forming regions. Like the smaller, more…
IC 5067 in the Pelican Nebula
The prominent ridge of emission featured in this sharp, colorful skyscape is cataloged as IC 5067. Part of a larger emission nebula with a distinctive shape, popularly called The…
NGC 5078 and Friends
This sharp telescopic field of view holds two bright galaxies. Barred spiral NGC 5101 (top right) and nearly edge-on system NGC 5078 are separated on the sky by about 0.5 degrees…
Milky Way Over the Spanish Peaks
That's not lightning, and it did not strike between those mountains. The diagonal band is actually the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, while the twin peaks are actually…
Inside a Daya Bay Antineutrino Detector
Why is there more matter than antimatter in the Universe? To better understand this facet of basic physics, energy departments in China and the USA led in the creation of the Daya…
LL Orionis: When Cosmic Winds Collide
What created this great arc in space? This arcing, graceful structure is actually a bow shock about half a light-year across, created as the wind from young star LL Orionis…
Milky Way and Planets Near Opposition
In this early May night skyscape, a mountain road near Bursa, Turkey seems to lead toward bright planets Mars and Saturn and the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, a direction nearly…
3D Mercury Transit
On May 9, innermost planet Mercury crossed IN FRONT of the Sun. Though pictures project the event in only two dimensions, a remarkable three dimensional perspective on the transit…
The Surface of Europa
An enhanced-color view , this image covers a 350 by 750 kilometer swath across the surface of Jupiter's tantalizing moon Europa . The close-up combines high-resolution image data…
Viewing discoveries from 11 June 2016 through 19 May 2016.