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.
IC 5146: The Cocoon Nebula
Inside the Cocoon Nebula is a newly developing cluster of stars. Cataloged as IC 5146 , the beautiful nebula is nearly 15 light-years wide. Soaring high in northern summer night…
Little Planet South Pole
Lights play around the horizon of this snowy little planet as it drifts through a starry night sky. Of course the little planet is actually planet Earth . Recorded on August 21,…
Tiangong Space Station Transits the Moon
The rugged lunar south polar region lies at the top of this colorful portrait of a last quarter Moon made on August 20. Constructed from video frames and still images taken at…
The Cartwheel Galaxy from Webb
To some, it looks like a wheel of a cart. In fact, because of its outward appearance, the presence of a central galaxy , and its connection with what looks like the spokes of a…
Meteor & Milky Way over the Mediterranean
Careful planning made this a nightscape to remember. First, the night itself was chosen to occur during the beginning of this year's Perseid Meteor Shower . Next, the time of…
The Spinning Pulsar of the Crab Nebula
At the core of the Crab Nebula lies a city-sized, magnetized neutron star spinning 30 times a second. Known as the Crab Pulsar , it is the bright spot in the center of the gaseous…
Stardust and Comet Tails
Heading for its closest approach to the Sun, or perihelion, on December 19 comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) remains a sight for telescopic observers as it sweeps through planet Earth's…
Saturn: 1993 - 2022
Saturn is the most distant planet of the Solar System easily visible to the unaided eye. With this extraordinary, long-term astro-imaging project begun in 1993, you can follow the…
Full Moon Perseids
The annual Perseid meteor shower was near its peak on August 13. As planet Earth crossed through streams of debris left by periodic Comet Swift-Tuttle meteors rained in northern…
Stargate Milky Way
There is a huge gate of stars in the sky, and you pass through it twice a day. The stargate is actually our Milky Way Galaxy , and it is the spin of the Earth that appears to…
A Meteor Wind over Tunisia
Does the Earth ever pass through a wind of meteors? Yes, and they are frequently visible as meteor showers . Almost all meteors are sand-sized debris that escaped from a…
The Cygnus Wall of Star Formation
The North America nebula on the sky can do what the North America continent on Earth cannot -- form stars. Specifically, in analogy to the Earth-confined continent, the bright…
Herschel Crater on Mimas
Mimas , small 400 kilometer-diameter moon of Saturn, is host to 130 kilometer-diameter Herschel crater , one of the larger impact craters in the entire Solar System. The robotic…
Portrait of the Eagle Nebula
A star cluster around 2 million years young surrounded by natal clouds of dust and glowing gas, Messier 16 (M16) is also known as The Eagle Nebula. This beautifully detailed image…
Perseids and MAGIC
On August 11, 2021 a multi-mirror , 17 meter-diameter MAGIC telescope reflected this starry night sky from the Roque de los Muchachos European Northern Observatory on the Canary…
Dust Clouds of the Pacman Nebula
Stars can create huge and intricate dust sculptures from the dense and dark molecular cloud s from which they are born. The tools the stars use to carve their detailed works are…
The Lagoon Nebula without Stars
Ridges of glowing interstellar gas and dark dust clouds inhabit the turbulent, cosmic depths of the Lagoon Nebula . Also known as M8 , the bright star forming region is about…
Meteor before Galaxy
What's that green streak in front of the Andromeda galaxy? A meteor. While photographing the Andromeda galaxy in 2016, near the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower , a small pebble…
Stereo Phobos
Get out your red/blue glasses and float next to Phobos, grooved moon of Mars! Captured in 2004 by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on board ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, the…
A Beautiful Trifid
The beautiful Trifid Nebula is a cosmic study in contrasts . Also known as M20, it lies about 5,000 light-years away toward the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. A star…
M13: The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules
In 1716 , English astronomer Edmond Halley noted, “This is but a little Patch, but it shows itself to the naked Eye, when the Sky is serene and the Moon absent.” Of course, M13 is…
Halo of the Cat's Eye
What created the unusual halo around the Cat's Eye nebula? No one is sure. What is sure is that the Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae on the…
A Moon Dressed Like Saturn
Why does Saturn appear so big? It doesn't -- what is pictured are foreground clouds on Earth crossing in front of the Moon . The Moon shows a slight crescent phase with most of…
Mountains of Dust in the Carina Nebula
It's stars versus dust in the Carina Nebula and the stars are winning. More precisely, the energetic light and winds from massive newly formed stars are evaporating and dispersing…
Viewing discoveries from 27 August 2022 through 1 August 2022.