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.
South Celestial Rocket Launch
At sunset on December 6 a Rocket Lab Electron rocket was launched from a rotating planet. With multiple small satellites on board it departed on a mission to low Earth orbit…
Two Hemisphere Night Sky
The Sun is hidden by a horizon that runs across the middle in this two hemisphere view of Earth's night sky . The digitally stitched mosaics were recorded from corresponding…
NGTS-10b: Discovery of a Doomed Planet
This hot jupiter is doomed. Hot jupiters are giant planets like Jupiter that orbit much closer to their parent stars than Mercury does to our Sun . But some hot jupiters are more…
Jupiter's Magnetic Field from Juno
How similar is Jupiter's magnetic field to Earth's? NASA's robotic Juno spacecraft has found that Jupiter's magnetic field is surprisingly complex, so that the Jovian world does…
Moon Corona, Halo, and Arcs over Manitoba
Yes, but could you get to work on time if the Moon looked like this? As the photographer was preparing to drive to work, refraction , reflection , and even diffraction of…
Illustris Simulation of the Universe
How did we get here? Click play, sit back, and watch. A computer simulation of the evolution of the universe provides insight into how galaxies formed and perspectives into…
Central Centaurus A
A mere 11 million light-years away, Centaurus A is the closest active galaxy to planet Earth. Also known as NGC 5128 , the peculiar elliptical galaxy is over 60,000 light-years…
LDN 1622: Dark Nebula in Orion
The silhouette of an intriguing dark nebula inhabits this cosmic scene. Lynds' Dark Nebula ( LDN ) 1622 appears against a faint background of glowing hydrogen gas only visible in…
Trifecta at Twilight
On February 18, as civil twilight began in northern New Mexico skies, the International Space Station, a waning crescent Moon, and planet Mars for a moment shared this…
UGC 12591: The Fastest Rotating Galaxy Known
Why does this galaxy spin so fast? To start, even identifying which type of galaxy UGC 12591 is difficult -- featured on the lower left, it has dark dust lanes like a spiral…
Orion over the Central Bohemian Highlands
Do you recognize this constellation? Setting past the Central Bohemian Highlands in the Czech Republic is Orion , one of the most identifiable star groupings on the sky and an…
The Changing Surface of Fading Betelgeuse
Besides fading, is Betelgeuse changing its appearance? Yes. The famous red supergiant star in the familiar constellation of Orion is so large that telescopes on Earth can actually…
NGC 2392: Double-Shelled Planetary Nebula
To some, this huge nebula resembles a person's head surrounded by a parka hood . In 1787, astronomer William Herschel discovered this unusual planetary nebula: NGC 2392 . More…
Carina Nebula Close Up
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…
The Pale Blue Dot
On Valentine's Day in 1990, cruising four billion miles from the Sun, the Voyager 1 spacecraft looked back one last time to make the first ever Solar System family portrait . The…
Spitzer's Trifid
The Trifid Nebula , also known as Messier 20, is easy to find with a small telescope. About 30 light-years across and 5,500 light-years distant it's a popular stop for cosmic…
Star Trails of the North and South
What divides the north from the south? It all has to do with the spin of the Earth . On Earth's surface, the equator is the dividing line, but on Earth's sky, the dividing line is…
Launch of the Solar Orbiter
How does weather on the Sun affect humanity? To help find out, the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA have just launched the Solar Orbiter . This Sun-circling robotic spaceship…
Solar Eclipse over the UAE
What's happening behind that camel? A partial eclipse of the Sun. About six and a half weeks ago, the Moon passed completely in front of the Sun as seen from a narrow band on the…
To Fly Free in Space
What would it be like to fly free in space? At about 100 meters from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Challenger , Bruce McCandless II was living the dream -- floating farther…
Cosmic Clouds in the Unicorn
Interstellar clouds of hydrogen gas and dust abound in this gorgeous skyscape . The 3 degree wide field of view stretches through the faint but fanciful constellation Monoceros ,…
NGC 7331 Close Up
Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 7331 is often touted as an analog to our own Milky Way . About 50 million light-years distant in the northern constellation Pegasus , NGC 7331 was…
Southern Moonscape
The Moon's south pole is near the top of this detailed telescopic view . Looking across the rugged southern lunar highlands it was captured from southern California, planet Earth.…
Lunar Eclipse Perspectives
Do we all see the same Moon ? Yes, but we all see it differently. One difference is the apparent location of the Moon against background stars -- an effect known as parallax . We…
Viewing discoveries from 28 February 2020 through 5 February 2020.