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.
Find the Man in the Moon
Have you ever seen the Man in the Moon? This common question plays on the ability of humans to see pareidolia -- imagining familiar icons where they don't actually exist. The…
MWC 922: The Red Square Nebula
What could cause a nebula to appear square? No one is quite sure. The hot star system known as MWC 922 , however, appears to be embedded in a nebula with just such a shape. The…
A Five Planet Dawn
As January closes and in the coming days of February, early morning risers can spot the five naked-eye planets before dawn. Though some might claim to see six planets, in this…
Hidden Galaxy IC 342
Similar in size to large, bright spiral galaxies in our neighborhood, IC 342 is a mere 10 million light-years distant in the long-necked, northern constellation Camelopardalis . A…
Elliptical M60, Spiral NGC 4647
Giant elliptical galaxy M60 and spiral galaxy NGC 4647 do look like an odd couple in this sharp cosmic portrait from the Hubble Space Telescope. But they are found in a region of…
An Airglow Fan from Lake to Sky
Why would the sky look like a giant fan? Airglow . The featured intermittent green glow appeared to rise from a lake through the arch of our Milky Way Galaxy , as captured last…
A Candidate for the Biggest Boom Yet Seen
It is a candidate for the brightest and most powerful explosion ever seen -- what is it? The flaring spot of light was found by the All Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae…
Where Your Elements Came From
The hydrogen in your body, present in every molecule of water, came from the Big Bang . There are no other appreciable sources of hydrogen in the universe. The carbon in your body…
Star Cluster R136 Bursts Out
In the center of star-forming region 30 Doradus lies a huge cluster containing some of the largest, hottest, and most massive stars known. These stars, known collectively as star…
Big Dipper, Deep Sky
The Big Dipper is an easy to recognize, well-known asterism in northern skies, though many see the Plough or Wagon . Famous bright nebulae of the north can also be found along its…
21st Century M101
One of the last entries in Charles Messier's famous catalog, big, beautiful spiral galaxy M101 is definitely not one of the least. About 170,000 light-years across, this galaxy is…
The View Toward M101
Sweeping through northern skies, Comet Catalina (C/2013 US10) made its closest approach on January 17, passing about 6 light-minutes from our fair planet. Dust and ion tails…
Stars and Globules in the Running Chicken Nebula
The eggs from this gigantic chicken may form into stars. The featured emission nebula, shown in scientifically assigned colors, is cataloged as IC 2944 but known as the Running…
A Dark Sand Dune on Mars
What is that dark sand dune doing on Mars? NASA 's robotic rover Curiosity has been studying it to find out, making this the first-ever up-close investigation of an active sand…
Proxima Centauri: The Closest Star
Does the closest star to our Sun have planets? No one is sure -- but you can now follow frequent updates of a new search that is taking place during the first few months of this…
The Galactic Center in Infrared
The center of our Galaxy is a busy place. In visible light , much of the Galactic Center is obscured by opaque dust . In infrared light , however, dust glows more and obscures…
The View Toward M106
A big, bright, beautiful spiral, Messier 106 is at the center of this galaxy filled cosmic vista. The two degree wide telescopic field of view looks toward the well-trained…
Wright Mons in Color
Informally named Wright Mons, a broad mountain about 150 kilometers across and 4 kilometers high with a wide, deep summit depression is featured in this inset image captured…
Infrared Portrait of the Large Magellanic Cloud
Cosmic dust clouds ripple across this infrared portrait of our Milky Way's satellite galaxy , the Large Magellanic Cloud. In fact, the remarkable composite image from the Herschel…
Reflections on the 1970s
The 1970s are sometimes ignored by astronomers, like this beautiful grouping of reflection nebulae in Orion - NGC 1977, NGC 1975, and NGC 1973 - usually overlooked in favor of the…
The California Nebula
What's California doing in space? Drifting through the Orion Arm of the spiral Milky Way Galaxy, this cosmic cloud by chance echoes the outline of California on the west coast of…
A Colorful Solar Corona over the Himalayas
What are those colorful rings around the Sun? A corona visible only to Earth observers in the right place at the right time. Rings like this will sometimes appear when the Sun or…
Sun Storm: A Coronal Mass Ejection
What's happening to our Sun? Another Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)! The Sun-orbiting SOHO spacecraft has imaged many erupting filaments lifting off the active solar surface and…
Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1300
Big, beautiful, barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300 lies some 70 million light-years away on the banks of the constellation Eridanus . This Hubble Space Telescope composite view of the…
Viewing discoveries from 1 February 2016 through 9 January 2016.