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.
SpaceX Falcon 9 to Orbit
Birds don't fly this high. Airplanes don't go this fast. The Statue of Liberty weighs less. No species other than human can even comprehend what is going on , nor could any human…
Daphnis the Wavemaker
Plunging close to the outer edges of Saturn's rings, on January 16 the Cassini spacecraft captured this closest yet view of Daphnis . About 8 kilometers across and orbiting within…
Layer Cake Sunset
On January 18 a tantalizing sunset was captured in this snapshot. Seemingly sliced into many horizontal layers the Sun shimmered moments before it touched the horizon, setting…
The Elephant's Trunk Nebula in Cepheus
Like an illustration in a galactic Just So Story , the Elephant's Trunk Nebula winds through the emission nebula and young star cluster complex IC 1396 , in the high and far off…
Space Station Vista: Planet and Galaxy
If you could circle the Earth aboard the International Space Station, what might you see? Some amazing vistas, one of which was captured in this breathtaking picture in mid-2015.…
Fly Me to the Moon
No, this is not a good way to get to the Moon . What is pictured is a chance superposition of an airplane and the Moon. The contrail would normally appear white, but the large…
Geostationary Highway through Orion
Put a satellite in a circular orbit about 42,000 kilometers from the center of the Earth and it will orbit once in 24 hours. Because that matches Earth's rotation period, it is…
The Matter of the Bullet Cluster
What's the matter with the Bullet Cluster? This massive cluster of galaxies ( 1E 0657-558 ) creates gravitational lens distortions of background galaxies in a way that has been…
Stardust in the Perseus Molecular Cloud
Clouds of stardust drift through this deep skyscape. The cosmic scene spans nearly 2 degrees across the Perseus molecular cloud some 850 light-years away. A triangle of dusty…
When Mars met Neptune
On January 1, a Mars-assisted viewing opportunity allowed binocular-equipped skygazers to cross an ice giant off their life list. Remarkably, the line-of-sight to the bright Red…
Edge-On NGC 891
Large spiral galaxy NGC 891 spans about 100 thousand light-years and is seen almost exactly edge-on from our perspective. In fact, about 30 million light-years distant in the…
Mimas, Crater, and Mountain
Mimas is an icy, crater-pocked moon of Saturn a mere 400 kilometers (250 miles) in diameter. Its largest crater Herschel is nearly 140 kilometers wide. About a third the diameter…
Sentinels of a Northern Sky
Who guards the north? The featured picture was taken last March in Finnish Lapland where weather can include sub-freezing temperatures and driving snow. Surreal landscapes…
In the Center of Spiral Galaxy NGC 5033
What's happening in the center of spiral NGC 5033? Many things -- some circular, some energetic, and some not well understood. NGC 5033 is known as a Seyfert galaxy because of the…
IC 4406: A Seemingly Square Nebula
How can a round star make a square nebula? This conundrum comes to light when studying planetary nebulae like IC 4406. Evidence indicates that IC 4406 is likely a hollow cylinder,…
Sharpless 249 and the Jellyfish Nebula
Normally faint and elusive, the Jellyfish Nebula is caught in this alluring telescopic mosaic. The scene is anchored below by bright star Eta Geminorum, at the foot of the…
New York Harbor Moonset
Moonset on January 1 is captured in this sea and night sky snapshot from the port city of New York. Its warm moonlight shining through haze and thin clouds, this New Year's Moon…
Peculiar Galaxies of Arp 273
The spiky stars in the foreground of this sharp cosmic portrait are well within our own Milky Way Galaxy . The two eye-catching galaxies lie far beyond the Milky Way , at a…
Clouds of Andromeda
The beautiful Andromeda Galaxy is often imaged by planet Earth-based astronomers. Also known as M31, the nearest large spiral galaxy is a familiar sight with dark dust lanes,…
Pandora Close-up at Saturn
What do the craters of Saturn's small moon Pandora look like up close? To help find out, NASA sent the robotic Cassini spacecraft , now orbiting Saturn, past the unusual moon two…
Comet 45P Returns
An old comet has returned to the inner Solar System. Not only is Comet 45P/HondaMrkosPajdukov physically ancient, it was first discovered 13 orbits ago in 1948. Comet 45P spends…
A Full Sky Aurora Over Norway
Higher than the highest building , higher than the highest mountain , higher than the highest airplane , lies the realm of the aurora. Auroras rarely reach below 60 kilometers,…
Infrared Trifid
The Trifid Nebula, also known as Messier 20 , is easy to find with a small telescope, a well known stop in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius . But where visible light…
Lunar Farside
Tidally locked in synchronous rotation , the Moon always presents its familiar nearside to denizens of planet Earth . From lunar orbit , the Moon's farside can become familiar,…
Viewing discoveries from 22 January 2017 through 30 December 2016.