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.
Rocket Launch as Seen from the International Space Station
Have you ever seen a rocket launch -- from space? A close inspection of the featured time-lapse video will reveal a rocket rising to Earth orbit as seen from the International…
Welcome to Perihelion
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…
Eclipse Pair
Eclipses tend to come in pairs. Twice a year, during an eclipse season that lasts about 34 days, Sun, Moon, and Earth can nearly align. Then the full and new phases of the Moon ,…
Solar Analemma 2024
Recorded during 2024, this year-spanning series of images reveals a pattern in the seasonal drift of the Sun's daily motion through planet Earth's sky. Known to some as an…
Alpha Centauri: The Closest Star System
The closest star system to the Sun is the Alpha Centauri system . Of the three stars in the system, the dimmest -- called Proxima Centauri -- is actually the nearest star . The…
The Twisted Disk of NGC 4753
What do you think this is? Here's a clue: it's bigger than a bread box. Much bigger . The answer is that pictured NGC 4753 is a twisted disk galaxy , where unusual dark dust…
M27: The Dumbbell Nebula
Is this what will become of our Sun? Quite possibly. The first hint of our Sun 's future was discovered inadvertently in 1764 . At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list…
Methane Bubbles Frozen in Lake Baikal
What are these bubbles frozen into Lake Baikal? Methane . Lake Baikal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Russia , is the world's largest (by volume), oldest, and deepest lake,…
A December Winter Night
Orion seems to come up sideways, climbing over a distant mountain range in this deep skyscape. The wintry scene was captured from southern Poland on the northern hemisphere's long…
Planet Earth at Twilight
No sudden, sharp boundary marks the passage of day into night in this gorgeous view of ocean and clouds over our fair planet Earth . Instead, the shadow line or terminator is…
Grand Spiral NGC 5643
Viewed face-on, grand spiral galaxy NGC 5643 has a festive appearance in this colorful cosmic portrait . Some 55 million light-years distant, the galaxy extends for over 100,000…
Diamond Dust Sky Eye
Why is there a huge eye in the sky? Diamond dust . That is an informal term for small ice crystals that form in the air and flitter to the ground. Because these crystals are…
Fox Fur, Cone, and Christmas Tree
What do the following things have in common: a cone, the fur of a fox, and a Christmas tree? Answer: they all occur in the constellation of the Unicorn ( Monoceros ). Considered…
Christmas Tree Aurora
It was December and the sky lit up like a Christmas tree. Shimmering, the vivid green, blue, and purple auroral colors that formed the tree-like apparition were caused by high…
The Local Fluff
The stars are not alone. In the disk of our Milky Way Galaxy , about 10 percent of visible matter is in the form of gas called the interstellar medium (ISM). The ISM is not…
A Year in Sunsets
A year in sunsets, from April 2023 to March 2024, track along the western horizon in these stacked panoramic views. The well-planned sequence is constructed of images recorded…
The Long Night Moon
On the night of December 15, the Full Moon was bright. Known to some as the Cold Moon or the Long Night Moon, it was the closest Full Moon to the northern winter solstice and the…
Messier 2
After the Crab Nebula , this giant star cluster is the second entry in 18th century astronomer Charles Messier's famous list of things that are not comets. M2 is one of the…
NGC 660: Polar Ring Galaxy
What kind of strange galaxy is this? This rare structure is known as a polar ring galaxy , and it seems to have two different rings of stars. In this galaxy, NGC 660 , one ring of…
Near to the Heart Nebula
What excites the Heart Nebula? First, the large emission nebula on the upper left, catalogued as IC 1805 , looks somewhat like a human heart . The nebula glows brightly in red…
A Kilometer High Cliff on Comet Churyumov - Gerasimenko
This kilometer high cliff occurs on the surface of a comet. It was discovered on the dark nucleus of Comet Churyumov - Gerasimenko (CG) by Rosetta , a robotic spacecraft launched…
Geminid Meteors over a Snowy Forest
Meteors have been flowing out from the constellation Gemini . This was expected, as mid-December is the time of the Geminid Meteor Shower . Pictured here, over two dozen meteors…
Apollo 17's Moonship
Awkward and angular looking, Apollo 17's lunar module Challenger was designed for flight in the near vacuum of space. Digitally enhanced and reprocessed, this picture taken from…
M51: Tidal Streams and H-alpha Cliffs
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…
Viewing discoveries from 5 January 2025 through 13 December 2024.