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.
Epsilon Tauri: Star with Planet
Epsilon Tauri lies 146 light-years away. A K-type red giant star, epsilon Tau is cooler than the Sun, but with about 13 times the solar radius it shines with nearly 100 times the…
Jyväskylä in the Sky
You might not immediately recognize this street map of a neighborhood in Jyväskylä , Finland, planet Earth . But that's probably because the map was projected into the night sky…
Earth and Moon from Beyond
What do the Earth and Moon look like from beyond the Moon? Although frequently photographed together , the familiar duo was captured with this unusual perspective in late 2022 by…
Deep Nebulas: From Seagull to California
How well do you know the night sky? OK, but how well can you identify famous sky objects in a very deep image? Either way, here is a test: see if you can find some well-known…
Shadows of Mountain and Moon
Can the Moon and a mountain really cast similar shadows? Yes, but the division between light and dark does not have to be aligned. Pictured, a quarter moon was captured above the…
The Upper Michigan Blizzard of 1938
Yes, but can your blizzard do this? In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan 's Storm of the Century in 1938, some snow drifts reached the level of utility poles . Nearly a meter of new…
Falcon Heavy Boostback Burn
The December 28 night launch of a Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida marked the fifth launch for the rocket's reusable side boosters. About 2 minutes 20…
Jupiter over 2 Hours and 30 Minutes
Jupiter, our Solar System's ruling gas giant, is also the fastest spinning planet , rotating once in less than 10 hours. The gas giant doesn't rotate like a solid body though. A…
Northern Lights from the Stratosphere
Northern lights shine in this night skyview from planet Earth's stratosphere , captured on January 15. The single, 5 second exposure was made with a hand-held camera on board an…
America and the Sea of Serenity
Get out your red/blue glasses and check out this stereo view of another world. The scene was recorded by Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene Cernan on December 11, 1972, one orbit…
The Orion You Can Almost See
Do you recognize this constellation? Although it is one of the most recognizable star groupings on the sky, this is a more full Orion than you can see -- an Orion only revealed…
Star Cluster IC 348 from Webb
Sometimes, it's the stars that are the hardest to see that are the most interesting. IC 348 is a young star cluster that illuminates surrounding filamentary dust. The stringy and…
Dragon Aurora over Iceland
Have you ever seen a dragon in the sky? Although real flying dragons don't exist, a huge dragon-shaped aurora developed in the sky over Iceland in 2019 . The aurora was caused by…
Circling the Sun
Earth's orbit around the Sun is not a circle, it's an ellipse. The point along its elliptical orbit where our fair planet is closest to the Sun is called perihelion. This year,…
Good Morning Moon
Yesterday, the Moon was New . But on January 9, early morning risers around planet Earth were treated to the sight of an old Moon, low in the east as the sky grew bright before…
Quadrantids of the North
Named for a forgotten constellation , the Quadrantid Meteor Shower puts on an annual show for planet Earth's northern hemisphere skygazers. The shower's radiant on the sky lies…
The Light, the Dark, and the Dusty
This colorful skyscape spans about three full moons across nebula rich starfields along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the royal northern constellation Cepheus . Near…
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 Phases of Venus
Venus goes through phases . Just like our Moon, Venus can appear as a full circular disk, a thin crescent , or anything in between. Venus, frequently the brightest object in the…
The Cat's Eye Nebula in Optical and X-ray
To some it looks like a cat's eye. To others, perhaps like a giant cosmic conch shell . It is actually one of the brightest and most highly detailed planetary nebula known,…
The Snows of Churyumov-Gerasimenko
You couldn't really be caught in this blizzard while standing by a cliff on periodic comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Orbiting the comet in June of 2016, the Rosetta spacecraft's…
Trapezium: At the Heart of Orion
Near the center of this sharp cosmic portrait, at the heart of the Orion Nebula , are four hot, massive stars known as the Trapezium . Gathered within a region about 1.5…
Zeta Oph: Runaway Star
Like a ship plowing through cosmic seas, runaway star Zeta Ophiuchi produces the arcing interstellar bow wave or bow shock seen in this stunning infrared portrait. In the…
A SAR Arc from New Zealand
What is that unusual red halo surrounding this aurora? It is a Stable Auroral Red (SAR) arc. SAR arc s are rare and have only been acknowledged and studied since 1954. The…
Viewing discoveries from 26 January 2024 through 3 January 2024.