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.
Earth and Moon
On rare occasions, the Earth and Moon are photographed together. One of most spectacular times this occurred was 25 years ago this month when the Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft)…
Full Moon Silhouettes
Have you ever watched the Moon rise? The slow rise of a nearly full moon over a clear horizon can be an impressive sight. One impressive moonrise was imaged in early 2013 over…
Messier Craters in Stereo
Many bright nebulae and star clusters in planet Earth's sky are associated with the name of astronomer Charles Messier , from his famous 18th century catalog. His name is also…
North America and the Pelican
Fans of our fair planet might recognize the outlines of these cosmic clouds . On the left, bright emission outlined by dark, obscuring dust lanes seems to trace a continental…
M33: Triangulum Galaxy
The small, northern constellation Triangulum harbors this magnificent face-on spiral galaxy, M33. Its popular names include the Pinwheel Galaxy or just the Triangulum Galaxy . M33…
M42: The Great Orion Nebula
Few astronomical sights excite the imagination like the nearby stellar nursery known as the Orion Nebula. The Nebula 's glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an…
Juno Spots a Complex Storm on Jupiter
Some storms on Jupiter are quite complex. The swirling storm was captured late last month by the NASA's robotic Juno spacecraft currently orbiting the Solar System's largest…
Hurricane Season Animated
Where do hurricanes go? To better understand dangerous storms, NASA compiled data from several satellites into a supercomputer simulation of this past year's hurricane season.…
Our Story in One Minute
Do you have a minute -- to see the entire backstory of human existence? This thrilling video culls together multiple teasing video snippets in an attempt to succinctly summarize…
Crossing Horizons
Follow this vertical panoramic view from horizon to horizon and your gaze will sweep through the zenith of a dark night sky over Pic du Midi mountaintop observatory. To make the…
Apollo 17 at Shorty Crater
In December of 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent about 75 hours on the Moon in the Taurus-Littrow valley, while colleague Ronald Evans orbited…
Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka
Alnitak , Alnilam , and Mintaka , are the bright bluish stars from east to west (lower right to upper left) along the diagonal in this cosmic vista . Otherwise known as the Belt…
'Oumuamua: Interstellar Asteroid
Nothing like it has ever been seen before. The unusual space rock 'Oumuamua is so intriguing mainly because it is the first asteroid ever detected from outside our Solar System --…
Big Dipper over Pyramid Mountain
When did you first learn to identify this group of stars? Although they are familiar to many people around the world, different cultures have associated this asterism with…
Curiosity Rover Takes Selfie on Mars
Yes, but have you ever taken a selfie on Mars ? The Curiosity rover on Mars has. This selfie was compiled from many smaller images -- which is why the mechanical arm holding the…
NGC 7822: Stars and Dust Pillars in Infrared
Young stars themselves are clearing out their nursery in NGC 7822. Within the nebula , bright edges and complex dust sculptures dominate this detailed skyscape taken in infrared…
Friday, the Moon Smiled
Friday, an old Moon smiled for early morning risers. Its waning sunlit crescent is captured in this atmospheric scene from clear skies near Bursa, Turkey, planet Earth . In the…
Major Fireball Meteor
The sky glows with soft pinkish colors of fading twilight in this serendipitous mountaintop vista. Taken in subfreezing temperatures, the thoughtfully composed photo shows snowy,…
The Tarantula Nebula
The Tarantula Nebula is more than a thousand light-years in diameter, a giant star forming region within nearby satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud , about 180 thousand…
NGC 7789: Caroline's Rose
Found among the rich starfields of the Milky Way, star cluster NGC 7789 lies about 8,000 light-years away toward the constellation Cassiopeia. A late 18th century deep sky…
The Pleiades Deep and Dusty
The well-known Pleiades star cluster is slowly destroying part of a passing cloud of gas and dust. The Pleiades is the brightest open cluster of stars on Earth's sky and can be…
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Comet Machholz Approaches the Sun
Why is Comet Maccholz so depleted of carbon-containing chemicals? Comet 96P/Machholz 's original fame derives from its getting closer to the Sun than any other short period comet…
A Happy Sky over Los Angeles
Sometimes, the sky may seem to smile over much of planet Earth. On this day in 2008, visible the world over, was an unusual superposition of our Moon and the planets Venus and…
A Colourful Moon
The Moon is normally seen in subtle shades of grey. But small, measurable color differences have been greatly exaggerated in this mosaic of high-resolution images captured near…
Viewing discoveries from 4 December 2017 through 11 November 2017.