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.
Recycling Cassiopeia A
Massive stars in our Milky Way Galaxy live spectacular lives. Collapsing from vast cosmic clouds, their nuclear furnaces ignite and create heavy elements in their cores. After a…
The Horsehead Nebula
One of the most identifiable nebulae in the sky, the Horsehead Nebula in Orion , is part of a large, dark, molecular cloud . Also known as Barnard 33, the unusual shape was first…
Grand Spiral Galaxy NGC 1232
Galaxies are fascinating not only for what is visible, but for what is invisible. Grand spiral galaxy NGC 1232 , captured in detail by one of the Very Large Telescopes , is a good…
Fireball in the Arctic
Something very bright suddenly lit up the arctic -- what was it? The original idea was to take a series of aurora images that could be made into a time-lapse video . But when…
SpaceX Rocket Launch Plume over California
What's happened to the sky? On Friday, the photogenic launch plume from a SpaceX rocket launch created quite a spectacle over parts of southern California and Arizona . Looking at…
Phaethon's Brood
Based on its well-measured orbit, 3200 Phaethon (sounds like FAY-eh-thon) is recognized as the source of the meteroid stream responsible for the annual Geminid meteor shower .…
Gemini's Meteors
From dark skies above Heilongjiang province in northeastern China, meteors rain down on a wintry landscape in this beautiful composited night scene. The 48 meteors are part of…
Solstice Sun and Milky Way
Welcome to December's solstice , first day of winter in the north and summer for the southern hemisphere. Astronomical markers of the seasons, solstice and equinox dates are based…
How to Wash Your Hair in Space
How can you wash your hair in space -- without gravity? Long a bother for space-faring astronauts, Karen Nyberg, a flight engineer on the International Space Station (ISS) in…
The Spiral North Pole of Mars
Why is there a spiral around the North Pole of Mars? Each winter this pole develops a new outer layer about one meter thick composed of carbon dioxide frozen out of the thin…
The Kepler-90 Planetary System
Do other stars have planetary systems like our own? Yes -- one such system is Kepler-90 . Cataloged by the orbiting Kepler satellite , an eighth planet has now been discovered…
The Einstein Cross Gravitational Lens
Most galaxies have a single nucleus -- does this galaxy have four? The strange answer leads astronomers to conclude that the nucleus of the surrounding galaxy is not even visible…
A Wintry Shower
Four Geminids flash through northern skies in this wintry night skyscape. The bright fireball and 3 fainter meteors were captured in a single 10 second exposure, near the peak of…
Geminids of the North
Earth's annual Geminid meteor shower did not disappoint as our fair planet plowed through dust from active asteroid 3200 Phaethon. Captured in this northern hemisphere nightscape,…
Jupiter Diving
Take this simulated plunge and dive into the upper atmosphere of Jupiter, the Solar System's ruling gas giant. The awesome animation is based on image data from JunoCam, and the…
Meteors over Inner Mongolia
Did you ever get caught in a meteor shower? If yes, then every minute or so the sky sparked with fleeting flashes of light. This was the fate of the pictured astrophotographer…
Highlights of the Winter Sky
What's up in the sky this winter? The featured graphic gives a few highlights for Earth's northern hemisphere. Viewed as a clock face centered at the bottom, early winter sky…
Mercury Visualized from MESSENGER
What would it be like to fly over the planet Mercury? Images and data taken from NASA's robotic MESSENGER spacecraft that orbited Mercury from 2011 to 2015 have been digitally…
In Green Company: Aurora over Norway
Raise your arms if you see an aurora. With those instructions, two nights went by with, well, clouds -- mostly. On the third night of returning to same peaks, though, the sky not…
Stardust in Aries
This composition in stardust covers over 8 degrees on the northern sky. The mosaicked field of view is west of the familiar Pleiades star cluster, toward the zodiacal…
Alpine Superga Moonset
December's Full Moon phase occurred near perigee , the closest point in its orbit around our fair planet. Big and bright , the fully illuminated lunar disk sets over rugged…
All the Eclipses of 2017
As seen from planet Earth , all the lunar and solar eclipses of 2017 are represented at the same scale in these four panels. The year's celestial shadow play was followed through…
HH 666: Carina Dust Pillar with Jet
To some, it may look like a beehive harboring an evil bee . In reality, the featured Hubble image captures a cosmic pillar of dust, two- light years long, inside of which is…
A Horizon with Blue and Red
What's happening on the horizon? The horizon itself, past a spinach field in Guatemala , shows not only trees but a large volcano: the Volcn de Fuego (Volcano of Fire). The red…
Viewing discoveries from 28 December 2017 through 5 December 2017.