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.
Sound and Light Captured by Mars InSight
Your arm on Mars has unusual powers. For one thing it is nearly 2 meters long, has a scoop and grapple built into its hand, and has a camera built into its forearm. For another,…
Aurora Shimmer, Meteor Flash
Some night skies are serene and passive -- others shimmer and flash. The later, in the form of auroras and meteors, haunted skies over the island of Kvaløya, near Tromsø Norway on…
Tiny Planet Timelapse
You can pack a lot of sky watching into 30 seconds on this tiny planet. Of course, the full spherical image timelapse video was recorded on planet Earth, from Grande Pines…
December's Comet Wirtanen
Coming close in mid-December, Comet 46P Wirtanen hangs in this starry sky over the bell tower of a Romanesque church. In the constructed vertical panorama, a series of digital…
Cetus Galaxies and Supernova
Large spiral galaxy NGC 1055 at top left joins spiral Messier 77 (bottom right) in this cosmic view toward the aquatic constellation Cetus . The narrowed, dusty appearance of…
Highlights of the North Winter Sky
What can you see in the night sky this season? The featured graphic gives a few highlights for Earth 's northern hemisphere. Viewed as a clock face centered at the bottom, early…
Rocket Launch between Mountains
What's happening between those mountains? A rocket is being launched to space . Specifically, a Long March 3B Carrier Rocket was launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in…
Spiraling Supermassive Black Holes
Do black holes glow when they collide? When merging, co-orbiting black holes are sure to emit a burst of unusual gravitational radiation, but will they emit light, well before…
The Fairy of Eagle Nebula
The dust sculptures of the Eagle Nebula are evaporating. As powerful starlight whittles away these cool cosmic mountains , the statuesque pillars that remain might be imagined as…
Mount Everest Star Trails
The highest peak on planet Earth is framed in this mountain and night skyscape. On September 30, the digital stack of 240 sequential exposures made with a camera fixed to a tripod…
A Cold River to Orion
Ice is forming on the river Lielupe as it flows through the landscape in this winter's night scene . Even in motion the frigid water still reflects a starry sky, though. The well…
Across Corona Australis
Cosmic dust clouds are draped across a rich field of stars in this broad telescopic panorama near the northern boundary of Corona Australis , the Southern Crown. Less than 500…
IC 1871: Inside the Soul Nebula
This cosmic close-up looks deep inside the Soul Nebula . The dark and brooding dust cloud s on the left, outlined by bright ridges of glowing gas, are cataloged as IC 1871. About…
InSight's First Image from Mars
Welcome to Mars, NASA Insight. Yesterday NASA's robotic spacecraft InSight made a dramatic landing on Mars after a six-month trek across the inner Solar System. Needing to brake…
Rocket Launch as Seen from the Space Station
Have you ever seen a rocket launch -- from space? A close inspection of the featured time-lapse video will reveal a rocket rising to Earth orbit as seen from the International…
Phobos: Doomed Moon of Mars
This moon is doomed. Mars , the red planet named for the Roman god of war , has two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos , whose names are derived from the Greek for Fear and Panic . The…
Shipwreck at Moonset
A crescent Moon is about to sink under the western horizon in this sea and night skyscape. The atmospheric photo was taken on September 11 from the desert shore along the Skeleton…
Good Morning Leonid
On November 17, just an hour before sunrise, this bright and colorful meteor flashed through clear predawn skies. Above a sea of clouds this striking autumn morning's moment was…
Portrait of NGC 281
Look through the cosmic cloud cataloged as NGC 281 and you might miss the stars of open cluster IC 1590 . Still, formed within the nebula that cluster's young, massive stars…
Swirls and Colors on Jupiter from Juno
What creates the colors in Jupiter's clouds? No one is sure. The thick atmosphere of Jupiter is mostly hydrogen and helium , elements which are colorless at the low temperatures…
The Unexpected Trajectory of Interstellar Asteroid 'Oumuamua
Why is 'Oumuamua differing from its expected trajectory? Last year, 1I/2017 U1 'Oumuamua became the first known asteroid from interstellar space to pass through our Solar System.…
Gibbous Moon beyond Swedish Mountain
This is a gibbous Moon. More Earthlings are familiar with a full moon, when the entire face of Luna is lit by the Sun , and a crescent moon , when only a sliver of the Moon's face…
Creature Aurora Over Norway
It was Halloween and the sky looked like a creature. Exactly which creature, the astrophotographer was unsure but ( possibly you can suggest one ). Exactly what caused this eerie…
The Tarantula Nebula
The Tarantula Nebula , also known as 30 Doradus, is more than a thousand light-years in diameter, a giant star forming region within nearby satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic…
Viewing discoveries from 10 December 2018 through 17 November 2018.