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.
Unwrapped: Five Decade Old Lunar Selfie
Here is one of the most famous pictures from the Moon -- but digitally reversed. Apollo 11 landed on the moon in 1969 and soon thereafter many pictures were taken, including an…
The Red Square Nebula
How did a round star create this square nebula? No one is quite sure. The round star, known as MWC 922 and possibly part of a multiple star system , appears at the center of the…
The Bubble and the Star Cluster
To the eye, this cosmic composition nicely balances the Bubble Nebula at the right with open star cluster M52. The pair would be lopsided on other scales, though. Embedded in a…
Perseid Outburst at Westmeath Lookout
This year an outburst of Perseid meteors surprised skywatchers. The reliable meteor shower's peak was predicted for the night of August 12/13. But persistent visual observers in…
Harvest Moon Trail
Famed in festival, story, and song the best known full moon is the Harvest Moon . For northern hemisphere dwellers that's a traditional name of the full moon nearest the September…
Sun Spot Hill
Is this giant orange ball about to roll down that tree-lined hill? No, because the giant orange ball is actually the Sun . Our Solar System's central star was captured rising…
Lynds Dark Nebula 1251
Stars are forming in Lynds Dark Nebula ( LDN ) 1251. About 1,000 light-years away and drifting above the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, the dusty molecular cloud is part of a…
Rings and Seasons of Saturn
On Saturn, the rings tell you the season. On Earth, Wednesday marks an equinox , the time when the Earth's equator tilts directly toward the Sun. Since Saturn's grand rings orbit…
Rubin's Galaxy
In this Hubble Space Telescope image the bright, spiky stars lie in the foreground toward the heroic northern constellation Perseus and well within our own Milky Way galaxy. In…
North America and the Pelican
Fans of our fair planet might recognize the outlines of these cosmic clouds . On the left, bright emission outlined by dark, obscuring dust lanes seems to trace a continental…
Cyclone Paths on Planet Earth
Where on Earth do cyclones go? Usually known as hurricanes when in the Atlantic Ocean and typhoons when in the Pacific, the featured map shows the path of all major storms from…
Mars Panorama 360 from Curiosity
Which way up Mount Sharp ? In early September, the robotic rover Curiosity continued its ascent up the central peak of Gale Crater , searching for more clues about ancient water…
Night Sky Reflected
What's that in the mirror? In the featured image of the dark southern sky , the three brightest galaxies of the night are all relatively easy to identify. Starting from the left,…
A Spiral Aurora over Iceland
What's happened to the sky? Aurora ! Captured in 2015, this aurora was noted by Iceland ers for its great brightness and quick development. The aurora resulted from a solar storm,…
Saturn at Night
Still bright in planet Earth's night skies, good telescopic views of Saturn and its beautiful rings often make it a star at star parties . But this stunning view of Saturn's rings…
Rosetta's Comet in View
Faint comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) sweeps past background stars in the constellation Taurus and even fainter distant galaxies in this telescopic frame from September 7. About…
M16 Close Up
A star cluster around 2 million years young surrounded by natal clouds of dust and glowing gas, M16 is also known as The Eagle Nebula. This beautifully detailed image of the…
The Deep Sky Toward Andromeda
What surrounds the Andromeda galaxy? Out in space, Andromeda (M31) is closely surrounded by several small satellite galaxies , and further out it is part of the Local Group of…
NGC 520: Colliding Galaxies from Hubble
Is this one galaxy or two? The jumble of stars, gas, and dust that is NGC 520 is now thought to incorporate the remains of two separate disk galaxies. A defining component of NGC…
Firefly Milky Way over Russia
It started with a pine tree. The idea was to photograph a statuesque pine in front of the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy . And the plan, carried out two months ago, was…
A Falcon 9 Nebula
Not the Hubble Space Telescope's latest view of a distant galactic nebula, this illuminated cloud of gas and dust dazzled early morning spacecoast skygazers on August 29. The…
NGC 7023: The Iris Nebula
These cosmic clouds have blossomed 1,300 light-years away, in the fertile starfields of the constellation Cepheus . Called the Iris Nebula, NGC 7023 is not the only nebula to…
M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy
Find the Big Dipper and follow the handle away from the dipper's bowl until you get to the last bright star. Then, just slide your telescope a little south and west and you'll…
Dancing Ghosts: Curved Jets from Active Galaxies
Why would galaxies emit jets that look like ghosts? And furthermore, why do they appear to be dancing ? The curled and fluffy jets from the supermassive black holes at the centers…
Viewing discoveries from 27 September 2021 through 1 September 2021.