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.
Looking Sideways from the Parker Solar Probe
What's happening near the Sun? To help find out, NASA launched the robotic Parker Solar Probe (PSP) to investigate regions closer to the Sun than ever before. The PSP's looping…
Hoag's Object: A Nearly Perfect Ring Galaxy
Is this one galaxy or two? This question came to light in 1950 when astronomer Arthur Hoag chanced upon this unusual extragalactic object. On the outside is a ring dominated by…
Meteor over the Bay of Naples
A cosmic dust grain plowing through the upper atmosphere much faster than a falling leaf created this brilliant meteor streak . In a serendipitous moment, the sublime night sky…
Structure in the Tail of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks
Heading for its next perihelion passage on April 21, Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks is growing brighter. The greenish coma of this periodic Halley-type comet has become relatively easy to…
NGC 253: Dusty Island Universe
Shiny NGC 253 is one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible, and also one of the dustiest. Some call it the Silver Coin Galaxy for its appearance in small telescopes, or just…
Rosette Deep Field
Can you find the Rosette Nebula? The large, red , and flowery-looking nebula on the upper left may seem the obvious choice, but that is actually just diffuse hydrogen emission…
A January Wolf Moon
Did you see the full moon last month? During every month, on average, a full moon occurs in the skies over planet Earth . This is because the Moon takes a month to complete…
HFG1 & Abell 6: Planetary Nebulae
Planetary nebulae like Heckathorn-Fesen-Gull 1 (HFG1) and Abell 6 in the constellation Cassiopeia are remnants from the last phase of a medium sized star like our Sun . In spite…
Rocket Plume Shadow Points to the Moon
Why would the shadow of a rocket's launch plume point toward the Moon? In early 2001 during a launch of the space shuttle Atlantis , the Sun , Earth , Moon , and rocket were all…
The Shadow of Ingenuity's Damaged Rotor Blade
On January 18, 2024 , during its 72nd flight in the thin Martian atmosphere, autonomous Mars Helicopter Ingenuity rose to an altitude of 12 meters (40 feet) and hovered for 4.5…
When Roses Aren't Red
Not all roses are red of course , but they can still be very pretty. Likewise, the beautiful Rosette Nebula and other star forming regions are often shown in astronomical images…
Globular Star Cluster 47 Tuc
Globular star cluster 47 Tucanae is a jewel of the southern sky. Also known as NGC 104 , it roams the halo of our Milky Way Galaxy along with some 200 other globular star clusters…
The Heart Shaped Antennae Galaxies
Are these two galaxies really attracted to each other? Yes, gravitationally , and the result appears as an enormous iconic heart -- at least for now. Pictured is the pair of…
NGC 1566: A Spiral Galaxy from Webb and Hubble
What's different about this galaxy? Very little, which makes the Spanish Dancer galaxy , NGC 1566 , one of the most typical and photogenic spirals on the sky. There is something…
In the Core of the Carina Nebula
What's happening in the core of the Carina Nebula? Stars are forming, dying, and leaving an impressive tapestry of dark dusty filaments. The entire Carina Nebula , cataloged as…
The Cone Nebula from Hubble
Stars are forming in the gigantic dust pillar called the Cone Nebula. Cones, pillars , and majestic flowing shapes abound in stellar nurseries where natal clouds of gas and dust…
Apollo 14: A View from Antares
Apollo 14's Lunar Module Antares landed on the Moon on February 5, 1971. Toward the end of the stay astronaut Ed Mitchell snapped a series of photos of the lunar surface while…
NGC 1893 and the Tadpoles of IC 410
This cosmic view shows off an otherwise faint emission nebula IC 410, captured under clear Netherlands skies with telescope and narrowband filters. Above and right of center you…
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…
Camera Orion Rising
What does Orion rising look like to a camera? During this time of the year, the famous constellation is visible to the southeast just after sunset. From most Earth ly locations,…
SLIM Lands on the Moon
New landers are on the Moon. Nearly two weeks ago, Japan 's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) released two rovers as it descended, before its main lander touched down…
The Pleiades: Seven Dusty Sisters
The well-known Pleiades star cluster is slowly destroying part of a passing cloud of gas and dust. The Pleiades is the brightest open cluster of stars on Earth's sky and can be…
Pluto in True Color
What color is Pluto, really? It took some effort to figure out. Even given all of the images sent back to Earth when the robotic New Horizons spacecraft sped past Pluto in 2015,…
Full Observatory Moon
A popular name for January's full moon in the northern hemisphere is the Full Wolf Moon. As the new year's first full moon, it rises over Las Campanas Observatory in this dramatic…
Viewing discoveries from 19 February 2024 through 27 January 2024.