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.
Galaxy in a Crystal Ball
A small crystal ball seems to hold a whole galaxy in this creative snapshot . Of course, the galaxy is our own Milky Way. Its luminous central bulge marked by rifts of…
Northern Lights and Noctilucent Clouds
Luminous skies after the near-solstice sunset on June 17 are reflected in this calm lake. The tranquil twilight scene was captured near Bashaw, Alberta, Canada, northern planet…
Pillars of the Eagle Nebula in Infrared
Newborn stars are forming in the Eagle Nebula. Gravitationally contracting in pillars of dense gas and dust, the intense radiation of these newly-formed bright stars is causing…
Ancients of Sea and Sky
They may look like round rocks, but they're alive. Moreover, they are modern versions of one of the oldest known forms of life: stromatolites . Fossils indicate that stromatolites…
Mars Engulfed
What's happened to Mars? In 2001 , Mars underwent a tremendous planet-wide dust storm -- one of the largest ever recorded from Earth. To show the extent, these two Hubble Space…
Dusty With a Chance of Dust
It's storm season on Mars. Dusty with a chance of dust is the weather report for Gale crater as a recent planet-scale dust storm rages. On June 10 looking toward the…
Little Planet Soyuz
Engines blazing , a large rocket bids farewell to this little planet. Of course, the little planet is really planet Earth and the large rocket is a Soyuz-FG rocket. Launched from…
Six Planets from Yosemite
The five naked-eye planets, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, have been seen since ancient times to wander the night skies of planet Earth. So it could be remarkable that…
Red Cloudbow over Delaware
What kind of rainbow is this? In this case, no rain was involved -- what is pictured is actually a red cloudbow . The unusual sky arc was spotted last month during sunset in…
At Last GLAST
Rising through a billowing cloud of smoke, a long time ago from a planet very very close by, this Delta II rocket left Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's launch pad 17-B at 12:05…
The Cat's Eye Nebula from Hubble
To some, it may look like a cat's eye. The alluring Cat's Eye nebula, however, lies three thousand light-years from Earth across interstellar space. A classic planetary nebula ,…
Countryside Mars and Milky Way
Mars shines brightly now in planet Earth's sky. Seen with a yellowish hue it rises over the hills and far away in this serene night skyscape, a countryside panorama recorded last…
Fermi Science Playoffs
NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope was launched into orbit on June 11th, 2008. Its instruments detect gamma-rays -- light that is thousands to hundreds of billions of times…
The Clash of NGC 3256
Marked by an unusually bright central region, swirling dust lanes, and far flung tidal tails, peculiar NGC 3256 is the aftermath of a truly cosmic collision . The 500 million year…
A Sun Pillar over Norway
Have you ever seen a sun pillar ? When the air is cold and the Sun is rising or setting , falling ice crystals can reflect sunlight and create an unusual column of light. Ice…
Complex Jupiter
How complex is Jupiter? NASA's Juno mission to Jupiter is finding the Jovian giant to be more complicated than expected . Jupiter's magnetic field has been discovered to be much…
Saturn's Iapetus: Painted Moon
What has happened to Saturn's moon Iapetus? Vast sections of this strange world are dark as coal , while others are as bright as ice. The composition of the dark material is…
Jupiter Season, Hawaiian Sky
Volcanic activity on the Big Island of Hawaii has increased since this Hawaiian night skyscape was recorded earlier this year. Recent vents and lava flows are about 30 kilometers…
Mars Approach
Since the distance from Earth to Mars changes drastically as the planets orbit the Sun, Mars' appearance changes dramaticaly. Mars is bright now, and it's getting closer and…
NGC 6744 Close Up
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 constellation…
Aurora and Manicouagan Crater from the Space Station
How many of these can you find in today's featured photograph: an aurora, airglow, one of the oldest impact craters on the Earth, snow and ice, stars, city lights, and part of the…
Seven Dusty Sisters
Is this really the famous Pleaides star cluster? Known for its iconic blue stars , the Pleaides is shown here in infrared light where the surrounding dust outshines the stars.…
Titan: Moon over Saturn
Like Earth's moon, Saturn's largest moon Titan is locked in synchronous rotation. This mosaic of images recorded by the Cassini spacecraft in May of 2012 shows its anti-Saturn…
Galaxies Away
This stunning group of galaxies is far, far away, about 450 million light-years from planet Earth and cataloged as galaxy cluster Abell S0740. Dominated by the cluster's large…
Viewing discoveries from 22 June 2018 through 25 May 2018.