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.
Messier 51 in 255 Hours
An intriguing pair of interacting galaxies, M51 is the 51st entry in Charles Messier's famous catalog. Perhaps the original spiral nebula , the large galaxy with whirlpool-like…
Five Meters over Mars
On mission sol 872 (Earth date August 3) Ingenuity snapped this sharp image on its 54th flight above the surface of the Red Planet. During the flight the Mars Helicopter hovered…
Meteor Shower: Perseids from Perseus
This is a good week to see meteors. Comet dust will rain down on planet Earth, streaking through dark skies during peak nights of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower . The featured…
Moon Meets Jupiter
What's that below the Moon? Jupiter -- and its largest moons. Many skygazers across planet Earth enjoyed the close conjunction of Earth's Moon passing nearly in front of Jupiter…
The Pelican Nebula in Gas, Dust, and Stars
The Pelican Nebula is slowly being transformed. IC 5070 (the official designation) is divided from the larger North America Nebula by a molecular cloud filled with dark dust . The…
SN 1006: A Supernova Ribbon from Hubble
What created this unusual space ribbon? The answer: one of the most violent explosions ever witnessed by ancient humans. Back in the year 1006 AD, light reached Earth from a…
NGC 1360: The Robin's Egg Nebula
This pretty nebula lies some 1,500 light-years away, its shape and color in this telescopic view reminiscent of a robin's egg. The cosmic cloud spans about 3 light-years, nestled…
Moonrays of August
A Full Moon rose as the Sun set on August 1. Near perigee, the closest point in its almost moonthly orbit, the brighter than average lunar disk illuminated night skies around…
The Falcon and the Redstone
In a photo from the early hours of July 29 (UTC), a Redstone rocket and Mercury capsule are on display at Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 5 . Beyond the Redstone, the 8 minute long…
M82: Galaxy with a Supergalactic Wind
Why is the Cigar Galaxy billowing red smoke? M82 , as this starburst galaxy is also known, was stirred up by a recent pass near large spiral galaxy M81 . This doesn't fully…
Monster Solar Prominence
The monsters that live on the Sun are not like us. They are larger than the Earth and made of gas hotter than in any teapot . They have no eyes, but at times, many tentacles .…
Phobos over Mars
Why is Phobos so dark? Phobos , the largest and innermost of the two Martian moons, is the darkest moon in the entire Solar System . Its unusual orbit and color indicate that it…
Spiral Aurora over Icelandic Divide
Admire the beauty but fear the beast. The beauty is the aurora overhead , here taking the form of a great green spiral , seen between picturesque clouds with the bright Moon to…
Apollo 11: Catching Some Sun
Bright sunlight glints as long dark shadows mark this image of the surface of the Moon . It was taken fifty-four years ago, July 20, 1969, by Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong ,…
Young Stars, Stellar Jets
High-speed outflows of molecular gas from a pair of actively forming young stars shine in infrared light, revealing themselves in this NIRcam image from the James Webb Space…
Galaxies in the River
Large galaxies grow by eating small ones. Even our own galaxy engages in a sort of galactic cannibalism , absorbing small galaxies that are too close and are captured by the Milky…
IC 4628: The Prawn Nebula
South of Antares , in the tail of the nebula-rich constellation Scorpius , lies emission nebula IC 4628. Nearby hot, massive stars , millions of years young, irradiate the nebula…
The Eagle Nebula with X-ray Hot Stars
What do the famous Eagle Nebula star pillars look like in X-ray light? To find out, NASA's orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory peered in and through these interstellar mountains of…
Chemicals Glow as a Meteor Disintegrates
Meteors can be colorful. While the human eye usually cannot discern many colors, cameras often can. Pictured here is a fireball , a disintegrating meteor that was not only one of…
The Antikythera Mechanism
It does what? No one knew that 2,000 years ago, the technology existed to build such a device. The Antikythera mechanism , pictured, is now widely regarded as the first computer .…
Apollo 11: Armstrong's Lunar Selfie
A photograph of Buzz Aldrin standing on the Moon taken by Neil Armstrong , was digitally reversed to create this lunar selfie. Captured in July 1969 following the Apollo 11 moon…
Galactic Cirrus: Mandel Wilson 9
The combined light of stars along the Milky Way are reflected by these cosmic dust clouds that soar 300 light-years or so above the plane of our galaxy. Known to some as…
M64: The Black Eye Galaxy Close Up
This magnificent spiral galaxy is Messier 64 , often called the Black Eye Galaxy or the Sleeping Beauty Galaxy for its dark-lidded appearance in telescopic views. The spiral's…
Chandrayaan-3 Launches to the Moon
Birds don't fly this high. Airplanes don't go this fast. The Statue of Liberty weighs less. No species other than human can even comprehend what is going on , nor could any human…
Viewing discoveries from 11 August 2023 through 19 July 2023.