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.
Prometheus and the F Ring
In Greek myth Prometheus was a Titan, known for bringing fire from Mount Olympus. But in modern times the name is given to a small moon of Saturn , orbiting just inside Saturn's F…
High Energy Andromeda
A mere 2.5 million light-years away, the Andromeda Galaxy, also known as M31, really is just next door as large galaxies go. In this (inset) scan, image data from NASA's Nuclear…
Comets and Bright Star
This timely , telescopic, two panel mosaic spans about 10 full moons across planet Earth's predawn skies. Recorded as the year began from Tenerife, Canary Islands, near the top of…
The Lagoon Nebula in Hydrogen, Sulfur, and Oxygen
The majestic Lagoon Nebula is filled with hot gas and the home for many young stars. Spanning 100 light years across while lying only about 5000 light years distant, the Lagoon…
Earthset from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
On the Moon, the Earth never rises -- or sets. If you were to sit on the surface of the Moon, you would see the Earth just hang in the sky. This is because the Moon always keeps…
A Starry Night of Iceland
On some nights, the sky is the best show in town. On this night, the sky was not only the best show in town, but a composite image of the sky won an international competition for…
Sky Lights in the New Year
Triggered by the impact of a coronal mass ejection on New Year's eve, a moderate geomagnetic storm brought a celebration of sky lights to planet Earth's high latitudes yesterday.…
Comet Catalina Tails
A new year's treat for binoculars, as 2016 begins Comet Catalina (C/2013 US10) now sweeps through planet Earth's predawn skies near bright Arcturus, alpha star of Bootes. But this…
Solstice Sun at Lulworth Cove
A southern exposure and striking symmetry made Lulworth Cove , along the Jurassic Coast of England, planet Earth a beautiful setting during December's Solstice. Five frames in…
The Fox Fur Nebula
This interstellar canine is formed of cosmic dust and gas interacting with the energetic light and wind s from hot young stars. The shape, visual texture, and color, combine to…
Dust of the Orion Nebula
What surrounds a hotbed of star formation? In the case of the Orion Nebula -- dust. The entire Orion field , located about 1600 light years away, is inundated with intricate and…
Falcon 9 First Stage Landing
The booster has landed. Spaceflight took a step toward the less expensive last week when the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket set down on a landing pad not far from its Florida…
Doomed Star Eta Carinae
Eta Carinae may be about to explode. But no one knows when - it may be next year, it may be one million years from now. Eta Carinae 's mass - about 100 times greater than our Sun…
Southern Craters and Galaxies
The Henbury craters in the Northern Territory, Australia, planet Earth, are the scars of an impact over 4,000 years old. When an ancient meteorite fragmented into dozens of…
To Scale: The Solar System
Want to build a scale model Solar System? A blue marble 1.4 centimeters (about half an inch) across would be a good choice for a scale model Earth. Since the Sun is 109 times the…
Star Colors and Pinyon Pine
Beautiful, luminous decorations on this pinyon pine tree are actually bright stars in the constellation Scorpius and the faint glow of the central Milky Way. Captured in June from…
Geminid Meteors over Xinglong Observatory
Where do Geminid meteors come from? In terms of location on the sky, as the featured image composite beautifully demonstrates, the sand-sized bits of rock that create the streaks…
Solstice Illuminated: A Year of Sky
Can you find which day is the winter solstice? Each panel shows one day. With 360 movie panels, the sky over (almost) an entire year is shown in time lapse format as recorded by a…
SN Refsdal: The First Predicted Supernova Image
It's back. Never before has an observed supernova been predicted. The unique astronomical event occurred in the field of galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+2223. Most bright spots in 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…
Star Streams and the Whale Galaxy
NGC 4631 is a spiral galaxy found only 25 million light-years away, toward the well-trained northern constellation Canes Venatici . Seen egde-on, the galaxy is similar in size to…
Herbig-Haro 24
This might look like a double-bladed lightsaber, but these two cosmic jets actually beam outward from a newborn star in a galaxy near you . Constructed from Hubble Space Telescope…
Geminids of the South
Earth's annual Geminid meteor shower did not disappoint, peaking before dawn on December 14 as our fair planet plowed through dust from active asteroid 3200 Phaethon. Captured in…
The Horsehead Nebula
The Horsehead Nebula is one of the most famous nebulae on the sky. It is visible as the dark indentation to the red emission nebula in the center of the above photograph. The…
Viewing discoveries from 8 January 2016 through 16 December 2015.