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.
Three Clusters in Puppis
Galactic or open star clusters are young. The swarms of stars are born together near the plane of the Milky Way, but their numbers steadily dwindle as cluster members are ejected…
Chamaeleon I Molecular Cloud
Dark markings and bright nebulae in this telescopic southern sky view are telltale signs of young stars and active star formation . They lie a mere 650 light-years away, at the…
Eiffel Tower Prominence on the Sun
What's that on the Sun? Although it may look like a flowing version of the Eiffel Tower, it is a solar prominence that is actually much bigger -- about the height of Jupiter. The…
Terminator Moon
What's different about this Moon? It's the terminator s. In the featured image, you can't directly see any terminator -- the line that divides the light of day from the dark of…
In the Heart of the Heart Nebula
What excites the Heart Nebula? First, the large emission nebula dubbed IC 1805 looks, in whole, like a human heart . Its shape perhaps fitting of the Valentine's Day , this heart…
Earth at Night
This is what the Earth looks like at night. Can you find your favorite country or city ? Surprisingly, city lights make this task quite possible. Human-made lights highlight…
Aurora by Moonlight
The ice was singing as light from a bright gibbous Moon cast shadows across this frozen lake , about 20 kilometers north of Stockholm, Sweden, planet Earth. In the alluring night…
IC 342: The Hidden Galaxy in Camelopardalis
Similar in size to large, bright spiral galaxies in our neighborhood, IC 342 is a mere 10 million light-years distant in the long-necked, northern constellation Camelopardalis . A…
T Tauri and Hind's Variable Nebula
The star with an orange tint near top center in this dusty telescopic frame is T Tauri, prototype of the class of T Tauri variable stars. Next to it (right) is a yellow cosmic…
Eta Car: 3D Model of the Most Dangerous Star Known
What's the most dangerous star near earth? Many believe it's Eta Carinae, a binary star system about 100 times the mass of the Sun, just 10,000 light years from earth. Eta Carinae…
Aurora and Light Pillars over Norway
Which half of this sky is your favorite? On the left, the night sky is lit up by particles expelled from the Sun that later collided with Earth's upper atmosphere — creating…
NGC 4651: The Umbrella Galaxy
It's raining stars. What appears to be a giant cosmic umbrella is now known to be a tidal stream of stars stripped from a small satellite galaxy . The main galaxy, spiral galaxy…
Blue Marble Earth
Welcome to planet Earth, the third planet from a star named the Sun. The Earth is shaped like a sphere and composed mostly of rock. Over 70 percent of the Earth's surface is…
Symbiotic R Aquarii
Variable star R Aquarii is actually an interacting binary star system, two stars that seem to have a close symbiotic relationship. Centered in this space-based optical/x-ray…
Moons at Twilight
Even though Jupiter was the only planet visible in the evening sky on February 2, it shared the twilight above the western horizon with the Solar System's brightest moons . In a…
Embraced by Sunlight
Even though Venus (left) was the brightest planet in the sky it was less than 1/30th the apparent size of the Moon on January 29. But as both rose before the Sun they shared a…
The Galactic Center in Radio from MeerKAT
What's happening at the center of our galaxy? It's hard to tell with optical telescopes since visible light is blocked by intervening interstellar dust. In other bands of light,…
Moon Phases 2022
What will the Moon phase be on your birthday this year? It is hard to predict because the Moon's appearance changes nightly. As the Moon orbits the Earth, the half illuminated by…
Carina Nebula North
The Great Carina Nebula is home to strange stars and iconic nebulas. Named for its home constellation , the huge star-forming region is larger and brighter than the Great Orion…
A Solar Prominence from SOHO
How can gas float above the Sun? Twisted magnetic fields arching from the solar surface can trap ionized gas, suspending it in huge looping structures. These majestic plasma…
The Fornax Cluster of Galaxies
Named for the southern constellation toward which most of its galaxies can be found, the Fornax Cluster is one of the closest clusters of galaxies. About 62 million light-years…
Western Moon, Eastern Sea
The Mare Orientale , Latin for Eastern Sea, is one of the most striking large scale lunar features. The youngest of the large lunar impact basins it's very difficult to see from…
South of Orion
South of the large star-forming region known as the Orion Nebula, lies bright blue reflection nebula NGC 1999 . At the edge of the Orion molecular cloud complex some 1,500…
Stars, Dust, and Gas Near Antares
Why is the sky near Antares and Rho Ophiuchi so dusty yet colorful? The colors result from a mixture of objects and processes. Fine dust -- illuminated from the front by starlight…
Viewing discoveries from 18 February 2022 through 26 January 2022.