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.
Tardigrade in Moss
Is this an alien? Probably not, but of all the animals on Earth, the tardigrade might be the best candidate. That's because tardigrades are known to be able to go for decades…
Ganymede's Shadow
Approaching opposition early next month, Jupiter is offering some of its best telescopic views from planet Earth. On March 17, this impressively sharp image of the solar system's…
The Comet, the Owl, and the Galaxy
Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak poses for a Messier moment in this telescopic snapshot from March 21. In fact it shares the 1 degree wide field-of-view with two well-known…
SH2-155: The Cave Nebula
This skyscape features dusty Sharpless catalog emission region Sh2-155 , the Cave Nebula. In the telescopic image, data taken through a narrowband filter tracks the reddish glow…
Central Cygnus Skyscape
In cosmic brush strokes of glowing hydrogen gas , this beautiful skyscape unfolds across the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy near the northern end of the Great Rift and the center…
Fast Stars and Rogue Planets in the Orion Nebula
Start with the constellation of Orion. Below Orion's belt is a fuzzy area known as the Great Nebula of Orion. In this nebula is a bright star cluster known as the Trapezium ,…
The Aurora Tree
Yes, but can your tree do this? Pictured is a visual coincidence between the dark branches of a nearby tree and bright glow of a distant aurora. The beauty of the aurora --…
Equinox on a Spinning Earth
When does the line between day and night become vertical? Tomorrow. Tomorrow is an equinox on planet Earth, a time of year when day and night are most nearly equal. At an equinox,…
JWST: Ghosts and Mirrors
Ghosts aren't actually hovering over the James Webb Space Telescope . But the lights are out as it stands with gold tinted mirror segments and support structures folded in Goddard…
Phases of Venus
Just as the Moon goes through phases , Venus' visible sunlit hemisphere waxes and wanes . This composite of telescopic images illustrates the steady changes for the inner planet,…
Mimas in Saturnlight
Peering from the shadows, the Saturn-facing hemisphere of Mimas lies in near darkness alongside a dramatic sunlit crescent . The mosaic was captured near the Cassini spacecraft's…
The Cone Nebula from Hubble
Stars are forming in the gigantic dust pillar called the Cone Nebula. Cones, pillars , and majestic flowing shapes abound in stellar nurseries where natal clouds of gas and dust…
A Dark Winter Sky over Monfrage National Park in Spain
You, too, can see a night sky like this. That is because Monfrage National Park in Spain , where this composite image was created, has recently had its night sky officially…
Saturn's Moon Pan from Cassini
Why does Saturn's moon Pan look so odd? Images taken last week from the robotic Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn have resolved the moon in unprecedented detail. The surprising…
At the Heart of Orion
Near the center of this sharp cosmic portrait, at the heart of the Orion Nebula , are four hot, massive stars known as the Trapezium . Tightly gathered within a region about 1.5…
Reflections on vdB 31
Riding high in the constellation of Auriga, beautiful, blue vdB 31 is the 31st object in Sidney van den Bergh's 1966 catalog of reflection nebulae . It shares this well-composed…
Galaxy Cluster Abell 2666
The galaxies of Abell 2666 lie far beyond the Milky Way, some 340 million light-years distant toward the high flying constellation Pegasus. Framed in this sharp telescopic image ,…
Centaurus A
Only 11 million light-years away, Centaurus A is the closest active galaxy to planet Earth. Spanning over 60,000 light-years, the peculiar elliptical galaxy also known as NGC 5128…
Dust, Gas, and Stars in the Orion Nebula
The Great Nebula in Orion , an immense, nearby starbirth region , is probably the most famous of all astronomical nebulas . Here, filaments of dark dust and glowing gas surround…
UGC 12591: The Fastest Rotating Galaxy Known
Why does this galaxy spin so fast? To start, even identifying which type of galaxy UGC 12591 is difficult -- it has dark dust lanes like a spiral galaxy but a large diffuse bulge…
Colorful Aurora over Iceland
You don't always see a scene this beautiful when you hike to an ancient volcano -- you have to be lucky. When the astrophotographer realized that aurora s were visible two-weeks…
The Mysterious Rings of Supernova 1987A
What's causing those odd rings in supernova 1987A? Thirty years ago , in 1987, the brightest supernova in recent history was seen in the Large Magellanic Cloud . At the center of…
NGC 2170: Still Life with Reflecting Dust
In this beautiful celestial still life composed with a cosmic brush, dusty nebula NGC 2170 shines at the upper left. Reflecting the light of nearby hot stars, NGC 2170 is joined…
Sivan 2 to M31
From within the boundaries of the constellation Cassiopeia (left) to Andromeda (right), this telescopic mosaic spans over 10 degrees in planet Earth's skies. The celestial scene…
Viewing discoveries from 26 March 2017 through 3 March 2017.