Browse NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day archive by date and media: Archive Discoveries
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A View Toward M106
Big, bright, beautiful spiral, Messier 106 dominates this cosmic vista. The nearly two degree wide telescopic field of view looks toward the well-trained constellation Canes…
Our Galaxy's Magnetic Center
What's the magnetic field like in the center of our Milky Way Galaxy? To help find out, NASA's SOFIA -- an observatory flying in a modified 747 -- imaged the central region with…
Strawberry Moon over the Temple of Poseidon
Did you see the full moon last night? If not, tonight's nearly full moon should be almost as good. Because full moon s are opposite the Sun , they are visible in the sky when the…
Milky Way over Pyramid of the Feathered Serpent
To see the feathered serpent descend the Mayan pyramid requires exquisite timing. You must visit El Castillo -- in Mexico 's Yucatn Peninsula -- near an equinox . Then, during the…
Unusual Mountain Ahuna Mons on Asteroid Ceres
What created this unusual mountain? There is a new theory. Ahuna Mons is the largest mountain on the largest known asteroid in our Solar System , Ceres , which orbits our Sun in…
Stereo Helene
Get out your red/blue glasses and float next to Helene, small, icy moon of Saturn. Appropriately named, Helene is one of four known Trojan moons, so called because it orbits at a…
NGC 4676: The Mighty Mice
These two mighty galaxies are pulling each other apart. Known as The Mice because they have such long tails, each large spiral galaxy has actually passed through the other. Their…
The Colors and Magnitudes of M13
M13 is modestly recognized as the Great Globular Star Cluster in Hercules. A ball of stars numbering in the hundreds of thousands crowded into a region 150 light years across, it…
Spiral Galaxy M96 from Hubble
Dust lanes seem to swirl around the core of Messier 96 in this colorful, detailed portrait of the center of a beautiful island universe . Of course M96 is a spiral galaxy , and…
The Cave Nebula in Infrared from Spitzer
What's happening in and around the Cave Nebula? To help find out, NASA's orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope looked into this optically-dark star-forming region in four colors of…
Jupiter Abyss
What's that black spot on Jupiter? No one is sure. During the latest pass of NASA's Juno around Jupiter , the robotic spacecraft imaged an usually dark cloud feature informally…
A Triangular Shadow of a Large Volcano
Why does the shadow of this volcano look like a triangle? The Mount Teide volcano itself does not have the strictly pyramidal shape that its geometric shadow might suggest. The…
On the Beach with Mars
At the end of last year's northern summer, after its dazzling opposition, Mars still shone brightly in the night. The celestial beacon easily attracted the attention of these two…
The Planet and the Pipe
Now posing against our galaxy's rich starfields and nebulae, brilliant planet Jupiter shines in the night sky . Its almost overwhelming glow is near the top of the frame in this…
Messier 63: The Sunflower Galaxy
A bright spiral galaxy of the northern sky, Messier 63 is about 25 million light-years distant in the loyal constellation Canes Venatici . Also cataloged as NGC 5055, the majestic…
The Interstellar Clouds of Orion
The constellation of Orion is much more than three stars in a row. It is a direction in space that is rich with impressive nebulas. To better appreciate this well-known swath of…
SEIS: Listening for Marsquakes
If you put your ear to Mars, what would you hear? To find out, and to explore the unknown interior of Mars , NASA's Insight Lander deployed SEIS late last year, a sensitive…
Stephan's Quintet from Hubble
When did these big galaxies first begin to dance? Really only four of the five of Stephan's Quintet are locked in a cosmic tango of repeated close encounters taking place some 300…
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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. In 2014, a robotic SpaceX Dragon capsule that delivered supplies to the Earth-orbiting International…
NICER at Night
A payload on board the International Space Station, the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) twists and turns to track cosmic sources of X-rays as the station orbits…
Lynds Dark Nebula 1251
Stars are forming in Lynds Dark Nebula ( LDN ) 1251. About 1,000 light-years away and drifting above the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, the dusty molecular cloud is part of a…
Sunrise at Copernicus Crater
A prominent impact site anchored in the lunar Oceanus Procellarum, Copernicus crater is at the center of this telescopic portrait in light and shadow . Caught in stacked and…
M95: Spiral Galaxy with an Inner Ring
Why do some spiral galaxies have a ring around the center? First and foremost, M95 is one of the closer examples of a big and beautiful barred spiral galaxy . Visible in the…
Stars, Dust, and Gas near NGC 3572
Star formation can be colorful. This chromatic cosmic portrait features glowing gas and dark dust near some recently formed stars of NGC 3572 , a little-studied star cluster near…
Viewing discoveries from 20 June 2019 through 28 May 2019.