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.
On a Blue Moon
Rising at sunset, the gorgeous Full Moon of August 31 became the second Full Moon in a month. According to modern reckoning , that makes it a Blue Moon. In fact, parts of the Full…
Halo of the Cat's Eye
The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae in the sky . Its haunting symmetries are seen in the very central region of this tantalizing image ,…
Apollo 11 Landing Site Panorama
Have you seen a panorama from another world lately? Assembled from high-resolution scans of the original film frames, this one sweeps across the magnificent desolation of the…
A Dark Earth with a Red Sprite
There is something very unusual in this picture of the Earth -- can you find it? A fleeting phenomenon once thought to be only a legend has been newly caught if you know just…
Colorful Clouds Near Rho Ophiuchi
Why is the sky near Antares and Rho Ophiuchi so colorful? The colors result from a mixture of objects and processes. Fine dust illuminated from the front by starlight produces…
Curiosity on Mars: Mt. Sharp in View
What's that on the horizon? The light peak is Mt. Sharp -- an eventual destination of the Curiosity rover. The above image mosaic was taken from Bradbury Landing, the landing spot…
The Cat's Eye Nebula
Three thousand light-years away, a dying star throws off shells of glowing gas. This image from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals the Cat's Eye Nebula to be one of the most…
Perseid over Albrechtsberg Castle
Medieval Albrechtsberg castle is nestled in trees near the northern bank of the river Pielach and the town of Melk, Austria . In clearing night skies on August 12 it stood under…
Moon Meets Morning Star
Rising in the dark hours before dawn, wandering Venus now shines as the brilliant morning star. Its close conjunction with the Moon on August 13 was appreciated around planet…
Conjunction Colours
During the past week , nightfall on planet Earth has featured Mars, Saturn, and Spica in a lovely conjunction near the western horizon. Still forming the corners of a distinctive…
Clouds Near the Edge of Space
Noctilucent or night-shining clouds lie near the edge of space . From about 80 kilometers above Earth's surface, the icy clouds can still reflect sunlight even though the Sun…
DNA: The Molecule that Defines You
Every living thing on planet Earth is defined by its own molecule -- what's yours? This molecule, called DNA, spans about two meters stretched out but is coiled into every cell in…
A Filament Across the Sun
Is that a cloud hovering over the Sun? Yes, but it is quite different than a cloud hovering over the Earth. The long light feature on the left of the above color-inverted image is…
M72: A Globular Cluster of Stars
Globular clusters once ruled the Milky Way . Back in the old days , back when our Galaxy first formed, perhaps thousands of globular clusters roamed our Galaxy . Today, there are…
Curiosity on Mars: Still Life with Rover
What does the Curiosity rover look like on Mars? To help find out, NASA engineers digitally synthesized multiple navigation camera images taken last week into what appears to be…
Spiral Galaxy NGC 5033
Magnificent island universe NGC 5033 lies some 40 million light-years away in the well-trained northern constellation Canes Venatici . This telescopic portrait reveals striking…
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 colorful portrait of the…
Curiosity on Mars: A Wall of Gale Crater
If you could stand on Mars, what would you see? The above image is a digitally re-colored approximation of what you might see if the above Martian landscape had occurred on Earth.…
Perseid Meteors and the Milky Way
Where will the next Perseid meteor appear? Sky enthusiasts who trekked outside for the Perseid meteor shower that peaked over the past few days typically had this question on…
A Flight Through the Universe
What would it be like to fly through the universe? Possibly the best simulated video of this yet has been composed from recently-released galaxy data from the Sloan Digital Sky…
Spiral Galaxy NGC 4038 in Collision
This galaxy is having a bad millennium. In fact, the past 100 million years haven't been so good, and probably the next billion or so will be quite tumultuous. Visible on the…
The First Color Panorama from Mars by Curiosity
You've just landed on Mars and opened your eyes -- what do you see? If you're the Curiosity rover , you see a strange gravelly place with a large mountain in the distance. You've…
Perseid Below
Denizens of planet Earth watched last year's Perseid meteor shower by looking up into the bright moonlit night sky . But this remarkable view captured on August 13, 2011 by…
Mars in the Loop
This composite of images spaced some 5 to 7 days apart from late October 2011 (top right) through early July 2012 (bottom left), traces the retrograde motion of ruddy-colored Mars…
Viewing discoveries from 1 September 2012 through 9 August 2012.