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.
Interstellar Voyager
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched in 1977 on a grand tour of the outer planets of the Solar System . They have become the longest operating and most distant spacecraft from…
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…
Tarantula Stars R136 from Webb
Near the center of a nearby star-forming region lies a massive cluster containing some of the largest and hottest stars known. Collectively known as star cluster NGC 2070 , these…
An Iridescent Pileus Cloud over China
Yes, but how many dark clouds have a multicolored lining? Pictured, behind this darker cloud, is a pileus iridescent cloud , a group of water droplets that have a uniformly…
Carina Cliffs from the Webb Space Telescope
Stars created these cliffs. Specifically, the destructive winds and energetic light from the stars in the open cluster NGC 3324 eroded away part of a mountain of dark interstellar…
Sea and Sky Glows over the Oregon Coast
Every step caused the sand to light up blue. That glow was bioluminescence -- a blue radiance that also lights the surf in this surreal scene captured in mid-2018 at Meyer's Creek…
Sun and Moon and ISS
On August 25 Sun and Moon could both be seen in planet Earth's daytime skies. And so could the International Space Station . The ISS crossed the disk of the waning crescent Moon…
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…
The Tulip and Cygnus X-1
Framing a bright emission region, this telescopic view looks out along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the nebula rich constellation Cygnus the Swan. Popularly called the…
Siccar Point on Mars
What created this unusual hill on Mars? No one is sure. A good outlook to survey the surrounding area, Siccar Point stands out from its surroundings in Gale Crater . The unusual…
Jupiter from the Webb Space Telescope
This new view of Jupiter is illuminating. High-resolution infrared images of Jupiter from the new James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) reveal, for example, previously unknown…
The Horsehead Nebula Region without Stars
The famous Horsehead Nebula in Orion is not alone. A deep exposure shows that the dark familiar shape d indentation, visible just right of center, is part of a vast complex of…
Perijove 11: Passing Jupiter
Here comes Jupiter! NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno is continuing on its highly-elongated orbits around our Solar System's largest planet. The featured video is from perijove 11 in…
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…
Earth's Recent Climate Spiral
Is our Earth warming? Compared to the past 250 million years, the Earth is currently enduring a relative cold spell, possibly about four degrees Celsius below average. Over the…
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…
Viewing discoveries from 9 September 2022 through 17 August 2022.