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 Motion in 3D from Gaia
Our sky is alive with the streams of stars. The motions of 26 million Milky Way stars are evident in the featured map constructed from recent data taken by ESA 's Gaia satellite .…
A Molten Galaxy Einstein Ring
It is difficult to hide a galaxy behind a cluster of galaxies. The closer cluster's gravity will act like a huge lens , pulling images of the distant galaxy around the sides and…
Strawberry Supermoon Over Devil's Saddle
Near the horizon the full moon often seems to loom large, swollen in appearance by the famous Moon illusion . But time-lapse image sequences demonstrate that the Moon's angular…
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 .…
Solargraphic Analemmas
For the northern hemisphere June 21 was the summer solstice, the Sun reaching its northernmost declination for the year. That would put it at the top of each of these three…
The Solar System's Planet Trails
Stars trail through a clear morning sky in this postcard from a rotating planet . The timelapse image is constructed from consecutive exposures made over nearly three hours with a…
Comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS)
Imaged on June 20 2022, comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) shares this wide telescopic field of view with open star cluster IC 4665 and bright star Beta Ophiuchi, near a starry edge of…
Solar System Family Portrait
Yes, but have you ever seen all of the planets at once? A rare roll-call of planets has been occurring in the morning sky for much of June . The featured fisheye all-sky image ,…
Mercury from Passing BepiColombo
Which part of the Moon is this? No part -- because this is the planet Mercury . Mercury's old surface is heavily cratered like that of Earth's Moon . Mercury, while only slightly…
The Gum Nebula over Snowy Mountains
The Gum Nebula is so large and close it is actually hard to see . This interstellar expanse of glowing hydrogen gas frequently evades notice because it spans 35 degrees -- over 70…
Light Echoes from V838 Mon
What caused this outburst of V838 Mon? For reasons unknown, star V838 Mon 's outer surface suddenly greatly expanded with the result that it became one of the brighter stars in…
Planets of the Solar System
Simultaneous images from four cameras were combined to construct this atmospheric predawn skyscape. The cooperative astro-panorama captures all the planets of the Solar System ,…
Filaprom on the Western Limb
A solar filament is an enormous stream of incandescent plasma suspended above the active surface of the Sun by looping magnetic fields. Seen against the solar disk it looks dark…
Spiral Galaxy NGC 6744
Beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 6744 is nearly 175,000 light-years across, larger than our own Milky Way . It lies some 30 million light-years distant in the southern constellation…
Supernova Remnant: The Veil Nebula
Ten thousand years ago, before the dawn of recorded human history , a new light would have suddenly have appeared in the night sky and faded after a few weeks. Today we know this…
Analemma over Taipei
Does the Sun return to the same spot on the sky every day? No. A better and more visual answer to that question is an analemma , a composite of images taken at the same time and…
Rock Fingers on Mars
There, just right of center, what is that? The surface of Mars keeps revealing new surprises with the recent discovery of finger-like rock spires. The small nearly-vertical rock…
The Gamma Cygni Nebula
Supergiant star Gamma Cygni is at the center of the Northern Cross. Near the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, that famous asterism flies high in northern summer night skies in the…
Good Morning Planets from Chile
On June 15, innermost planet Mercury had wandered about as far from the Sun as it ever gets in planet Earth's sky . Near the eastern horizon just before sunrise it stands over…
Strawberry Supermoon from China
There are four Full Supermoons in 2022. Using the definition of a supermoon as a Full Moon near perigee, that is within at least 90% of its closest approach to Earth in a given…
In the Heart of the Virgo Cluster
The Virgo Cluster of Galaxies is the closest cluster of galaxies to our Milky Way Galaxy . The Virgo Cluster is so close that it spans more than 5 degrees on the sky - about 10…
Satellites Behind Pinnacles
What are all those streaks across the background? Satellite trails. First, the foreground features picturesque rock mounds known as Pinnacles. Found in the Nambung National Park…
M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy from Hubble
The Whirlpool Galaxy is a classic spiral galaxy. At only 30 million light years distant and fully 60 thousand light years across, M51 , also known as NGC 5194, is one of the…
Find the Man in the Moon
Have you ever seen the Man in the Moon? This common question plays on the ability of humans to see pareidolia -- imagining familiar icons where they don't actually exist. The…
Viewing discoveries from 6 July 2022 through 12 June 2022.