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.
Milky Way Falls
It can be the driest place on planet Earth, but water still flows in Chile's Atacama desert, high in the mountains. After discovering this small creek with running water, the…
Partial Eclipse over Beijing
On January 6 the New Moon rose in silhouette with the Sun seen from northeastern Asia. Near maximum, the dramatic partial solar eclipse is captured in this telephoto view through…
Vela Supernova Remnant Mosaic
The plane of our Milky Way Galaxy runs through this complex and beautiful skyscape . Seen toward colorful stars near the northwestern edge of the constellation Vela (the Sails),…
Quadrantids
Named for a forgotten constellation , the Quadrantid Meteor Shower is an annual event for planet Earth's northern hemisphere skygazers It usually peaks briefly in the cold, early…
HESS Telescopes Explore the High-Energy Sky
They may look like modern mechanical dinosaurs but they are enormous swiveling eyes that watch the sky. The High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) Observatory is composed of…
Stars, Meteors, and a Comet in Taurus
This was an unusual night to look in the direction of the Bull. The constellation Taurus is always well known for hosting two bright star clusters -- the Pleaides , visible on the…
A Laser Strike at the Galactic Center
Why are these people shooting a powerful laser into the center of our Galaxy? Fortunately, this is not meant to be the first step in a Galactic war . Rather, astronomers at the…
Yutu 2 on the Farside
On January 3 , the Chinese Chang'e-4 spacecraft made the first successful landing on the Moon's farside . Taken by a camera on board the lander, this image is from the landing…
Ultima Thule Rotation Gif
Ultima Thule is the most distant world explored by a spacecraft from Earth. In the dim light 6.5 billion kilometers from the Sun, the New Horizons spacecraft captured these two…
Ultima and Thule
On January 1 New Horizons encountered the Kuiper Belt object nicknamed Ultima Thule. Some 6.5 billion kilometers from the Sun, Ultima Thule is the most distant world ever explored…
The Orion Nebula in Infrared from WISE
The Great Nebula in Orion is an intriguing place. Visible to the unaided eye, it appears as a small fuzzy patch in the constellation of Orion . But this image , an illusory-color…
The Sombrero Galaxy in Infrared
This floating ring is the size of a galaxy. In fact, it is a galaxy -- or at least part of one: the photogenic Sombrero Galaxy , one of the largest galaxies in the nearby Virgo…
The Witch Head Nebula
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble .... maybe Macbeth should have consulted the Witch Head Nebula. A frighteningly shaped reflection nebula , this…
The Galaxy Tree
First came the trees. In the town of Salamanca , Spain , the photographer noticed how distinctive a grove of oak trees looked after being pruned . Next came the galaxy. The…
New Horizons at Ultima Thule
When we celebrate the start of 2019, on January 1 the New Horizons spacecraft will fly by Ultima Thule . A world of the Kuiper belt 6.5 billion kilometers from the Sun, the…
NGC 1365: Majestic Island Universe
Barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is truly a majestic island universe some 200,000 light-years across. Located a mere 60 million light-years away toward the chemical constellation…
The Great Carina Nebula
A jewel of the southern sky, the Great Carina Nebula , also known as NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years, one of our galaxy's largest star forming regions. Like the smaller, more…
NGC 6357: The Lobster Nebula
Why is the Lobster Nebula forming some of the most massive stars known? No one is yet sure . Cataloged as NGC 6357, the Lobster Nebula houses the open star cluster Pismis 24 near…
M100: A Grand Design Spiral Galaxy
Majestic on a truly cosmic scale, M100 is appropriately known as a grand design spiral galaxy. It is a large galaxy of over 100 billion stars with well-defined spiral arms that is…
Earthrise 1: Historic Image Remastered
“Oh my God! Look at that picture over there! Here's the Earth coming up. Wow is that pretty!” Soon after that pronouncement , 50 years ago today, one of the most famous images…
Earthrise: A Video Reconstruction
About 12 seconds into this video, something unusual happens. The Earth begins to rise. Never seen by humans before, the rise of the Earth over the limb of the Moon occurred 50…
A Cold December Night
They say Orion always comes up sideways , and he does seem to on this cold December night. The bright stars of the familiar northern winter constellation lie just above the snowy…
Extraordinary Solar Halos
Welcome to the December Solstice, the first day of winter in planet Earth's northern hemisphere and summer in the south. To celebrate, consider this extraordinary display of…
Red Nebula, Green Comet, Blue Stars
This festively colored skyscape was captured in the early morning hours of December 17, following Comet Wirtanen's closest approach to planet Earth . The comet was just visible to…
Viewing discoveries from 12 January 2019 through 20 December 2018.