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.
After Sunset Planet Parade
Look up tonight and see a whole bunch of planets. Just after sunset, looking west, planets Venus , Saturn , Jupiter and Mars will all be simultaneously visible . Listed west to…
The Largest Rock in our Solar System
There, that dot on the right, that's the largest rock known in our Solar System . It is larger than every known asteroid , moon , and comet nucleus . It is larger than any other…
Moon over Makemake
Makemake (sounds like MAH-kay MAH-kay), second brightest dwarf planet of the Kuiper belt , has a moon. Nicknamed MK2, Makemake's moon reflects sunlight with a charcoal-dark…
Mars and the Star Clusters
At this year's end Mars still shines brightly in planet Earth's night as it wanders through the head-strong constellation Taurus. Its bright yellowish hue dominates this starry…
Horsehead and Flame
The Horsehead Nebula , famous celestial dark marking also known as Barnard 33, is notched against a background glow of emission nebulae in this sharp cosmic skyscape . About five…
Messier 88
Charles Messier described the 88th entry in his 18th century catalog of Nebulae and Star Clusters as a nebula without stars. Of course the gorgeous M88 is now understood to be a…
A Full Circle Rainbow over Norway
Have you ever seen an entire rainbow? From the ground, typically, only the top portion of a rainbow is visible because directions toward the ground have fewer raindrops. From the…
NGC 6164: Dragon's Egg Nebula and Halo
The star at the center created everything. Known as the Dragon's Egg , this star -- a rare, hot, luminous O-type star some 40 times as massive as the Sun -- created not only the…
Geminids and the Mittens
Asteroid 3200 Phaethon's annual gift to planet Earth always arrives in December . Otherwise known as the Geminid meteor shower, the source of the meteroid stream is dust shed…
Comet 2022 E3 (ZTF)
Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) was discovered by astronomers using the wide-field survey camera at the Zwicky Transient Facility this year in early March. Since then the new long-period…
Cassini Looks Out from Saturn
This is what Saturn looks like from inside the rings. In 2017, for the first time , NASA directed the Cassini spacecraft to swoop between Saturn and its rings. During the dive ,…
NGC 1365: Majestic Island Universe
Barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is truly a majestic island universe some 200,000 light-years across. Located a mere 60 million light-years away toward the faint but heated…
Sun Halo at Sixty-three Degrees North
Happy Solstice! Today is the December solstice , marking an astronomical beginning of summer in the southern hemisphere and winter in the north. On its yearly trek through planet…
Thor's Helmet
Thor not only has his own day (Thursday), but a helmet in the heavens. Popularly called Thor's Helmet, NGC 2359 is a hat-shaped cosmic cloud with wing-like appendages. Heroically…
The Tadpole Nebula in Gas and Dust
What's causing the commotion in the Tadpole Nebula? Star formation. Dusty emission in the Tadpole Nebula, IC 410, lies about 12,000 light-years away in the northern constellation…
25 Brightest Stars in the Night Sky
Do you know the names of some of the brightest stars? It's likely that you do, even though some bright star s have names so old they date back to near the beginning of written…
Apollo 17 VIP Site Anaglyph
Get out your red/blue glasses and check out this stereo scene from Taurus-Littrow valley on the Moon! The color anaglyph features a detailed 3D view of Apollo 17's Lunar Rover in…
The Geminid
Returning from beyond the Moon , on December 11 the Orion spacecraft entered Earth's atmosphere at almost 11 kilometers per second. That's half the speed of the grain of dust that…
Full Moon, Full Mars
On December 8 a full Moon and a full Mars were close, both bright and opposite the Sun in planet Earth's sky. In fact Mars was occulted, passing behind the Moon when viewed from…
Lunar Dust and Duct Tape
Why is the Moon so dusty? On Earth, rocks are weathered by wind and water, creating soil and sand. On the Moon, the history of constant micrometeorite bombardment has blasted away…
An Artful Sky over Lofoten Islands
Can the night sky be both art and science? If so, perhaps the featured image is an example. The digital panorama was composed of 10 landscape and 10 sky images all taken on the…
An Unusual Globule in IC 1396
Is there a monster in IC 1396 ? Known to some as the Elephant's Trunk Nebula , parts of gas and dust clouds of this star formation region may appear to take on foreboding forms,…
Io in True Color
The strangest moon in the Solar System is bright yellow. The featured picture , an attempt to show how Io would appear in the “true colors” perceptible to the average human eye,…
America and the Sea of Serenity
Get out your red/blue glasses and check out this stereo view of another world. Fifty years ago the scene was recorded by Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene Cernan on December 11,…
Viewing discoveries from 2 January 2023 through 10 December 2022.