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.
The Iris Nebula in a Field of Dust
What blue flower grows in this field of dark interstellar dust? The Iris Nebula . The striking blue color of the Iris Nebula is created by light from the bright star SAO 19158…
Layers of the South Pole of Mars
What lies beneath the layered south pole of Mars? A recent measurement with ground-penetrating radar from ESA's Mars Express satellite has detected a bright reflection layer…
Lunar Eclipse over Rio
Moonrise doesn't usually look this interesting. For one thing, the full moon is not usually this dark -- but last Friday the moon rose here as it simultaneously passed through the…
Journey to the Center of the Galaxy
What wonders lie at the center of our Galaxy? In Jules Verne's science fiction classic A Journey to the Center of the Earth, Professor Liedenbrock and his fellow explorers…
One Night, One Telescope, One Camera
Taken on the same night, from the same place, with the same telescope and camera, these postcards from our Solar System are shown at the same scale to provide an interesting…
Mars Opposition
Look opposite the Sun in the sky tonight and you'll see Mars at its brightest . Also within days of its closest approach Mars rises at sunset, near its brightest and best for…
Barnard 228: The Dark Wolf Nebula in Lupus
These dark markings on the sky can just be found in silhouette against a rich, luminous background of stars. Seen toward the southern constellation of Lupus the Wolf, the dusty,…
The Edge-On Spindle Galaxy
What kind of celestial object is this? A relatively normal galaxy -- but seen from its edge. Many disk galaxies are actually just as thin as NGC 5866, pictured here , but are not…
Clouds of Earth and Sky
If you go high enough, you may find yourself on a picturesque perch between the water clouds of the Earth and the star clouds of the Milky Way. Such was the case last month for…
Fermi Science Finals
The Fermi Science Playoffs celebrate 10 years of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope's exploration of the high-energy universe . Surviving all early rounds of voting, these two…
Planck Maps the Microwave Background
What is our universe made of? To help find out, ESA launched the Planck satellite from 2009 to 2013 to map, in unprecedented detail, slight temperature differences on the oldest…
Apollo 11 Landing Site Panorama
Have you seen a panorama from another world lately? Assembled from high-resolution scans of the original film frames, this one sweeps across the magnificent desolation of the…
The Teapot and the Milky Way
The recognizable stars of the Teapot asterism in the constellation Sagittarius posed with the Milky Way over Death Valley, planet Earth on this quiet, dark night . The surreal…
Cerealia Facula
Cerealia Facula, also known as the brightest spot on Ceres , is shown in this stunning mosaic close-up view. The high-resolution image data was recorded by the Dawn spacecraft, in…
Dark Slope Streaks Split on Mars
What is creating these dark streaks on Mars? No one is sure. Candidates include dust avalanches, evaporating dry ice sleds , and liquid water flows. What is clear is that the…
Moon and Venus over Cannon Beach
What's that spot next to the Moon? Venus . Two days ago, the crescent Moon slowly drifted past Venus, appearing within just one degree at its closest. This conjunction , though,…
Neutrino Associated with Distant Blazar Jet
With equipment frozen deep into ice beneath Earth's South Pole, humanity appears to have discovered a neutrino from far across the universe. If confirmed, this would mark the…
Rings Around the Ring Nebula
There is much more to the familiar Ring Nebula (M57) , however, than can be seen through a small telescope. The easily visible central ring is about one light-year across, but…
A Nibble on the Sun
The smallest of the three partial solar eclipses during 2018 was just yesterday, Friday, July 13. It was mostly visible over the open ocean between Australia and Antarctica.…
Star Trails and the Bracewell Radio Sundial
Sundials use the location of a shadow to measure the Earth's rotation and indicate the time of day. So it's fitting that this sundial, at the Very Large Array Radio Telescope…
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…
Symbiotic R Aquarii
You can see it change in brightness with just binoculars over the course of a year. Variable star R Aquarii is actually an interacting binary star system, two stars that seem to…
Noctilucent Clouds over Paris Fireworks
It's northern noctilucent cloud season -- perhaps a time to celebrate! Composed of small ice crystals forming only during specific conditions in the upper atmosphere, noctilucent…
Road to Mars
What's that light at the end of the road? Mars . This is a good month to point out Mars to your friends and family because our neighboring planet will not only be its brightest in…
Viewing discoveries from 1 August 2018 through 9 July 2018.