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.
Jupiter and Ring in Infrared from Webb
Why does Jupiter have rings? Jupiter's main ring was discovered in 1979 by NASA's passing Voyager 1 spacecraft, but its origin was then a mystery. Data from NASA's Galileo…
A Double Sunrise from a Partial Eclipse
Can the Sun appear to rise twice at the same time? This was just the case a few days ago from Les Escoumins, Quebec, Canada as our Solar System's bright central orb rose just as…
Parker: The Solar System from Near the Sun
If you watch long enough, a comet will appear. Before then, you will see our Solar System from inside the orbit of Mercury as recorded by NASA's Parker Solar Probe looping around…
A Partial Solar Eclipse over Iceland
What if the Sun and Moon rose together? That happened yesterday over some northern parts of planet Earth as a partial solar eclipse occurred shortly after sunrise. Regions that…
Stereo Helene
Get out your red/blue glasses and float next to Helene, small, icy moon of Saturn. Appropriately named, Helene is a Trojan moon, so called because it orbits at a Lagrange point .…
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, eons of constant micrometeorite bombardment have blasted away at…
Messier 81
One of the brightest galaxies in planet Earth's sky is similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy: big, beautiful Messier 81 . Also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's galaxy for its 18th…
Star Formation in the Pacman Nebula
You'd think the Pacman Nebula would be eating stars, but actually it is forming them. Within the nebula , a cluster's young, massive stars are powering the pervasive nebular glow.…
A Blue Banded Blood Moon
What causes a blue band to cross the Moon during a lunar eclipse? The blue band is real but usually quite hard to see. The featured HDR image of last week's lunar eclipse, however…
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A Total Lunar Eclipse Over Uruguay
If the full Moon suddenly faded, what would you see? The answer was recorded in a dramatic time lapse video taken during the total lunar eclipse last week from Uruguay . During a…
Ancient Ogunquit Beach on Mars
This was once a beach -- on ancient Mars . The featured 360-degree panorama , horizontally compressed , was taken in 2017 by the robotic Curiosity rover that explored the red…
SuperCam Target on Ma'az
What's the sound of one laser zapping? There's no need to consult a Zen master to find out, just listen to the first acoustic recording of laser shots on Mars . On Mars Rover…
The Leo Trio
This popular group leaps into the early evening sky around the March equinox and the northern hemisphere spring . Famous as the Leo Triplet , the three magnificent galaxies found…
The Solar Eclipse Analemma Project
Recorded from 2024 March 10, to 2025 March 1, this composited series of images reveals a pattern in the seasonal drift of the Sun's daily motion through planet Earth's sky. Known…
Blue Ghost's Diamond Ring
On March 14 the Full Moon slid through Earth's dark umbral shadow and denizens of planet Earth were treated to a total lunar eclipse . Of course, from the Moon's near side that…
LDN 1235: The Shark Nebula
There is no sea on Earth large enough to contain the Shark nebula. This predator apparition poses us no danger as it is composed only of interstellar gas and dust . Dark dust like…
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…
Venus and the Triply Ultraviolet Sun
This was a very unusual type of solar eclipse. Typically, it is the Earth's Moon that eclipses the Sun. In 2012, though, the planet Venus took a turn. Like a solar eclipse by the…
Tololo Totality
On March 14 the Moon was Full . In an appropriate celebration of Pi day, that put the Moon 3.14 radians (180 degrees) in ecliptic longitude from the Sun in planet Earth's sky. As…
Moon Pi and Mountain Shadow
What phase of the Moon is 3.14 radians from the Sun? The Full Moon, of course. Even though the Moon might look full for several days, the Moon is truly at its full phase when it…
The Protostars within Lynds 483
Two protostars are hidden in a single pixel near the center of a striking hourglass-shaped nebula in this near-infrared image from the James Webb Space Telescope. The actively…
NGC 772: The Fiddlehead Galaxy
Why does this galaxy look like a curly vegetable ? The Fiddlehead spiral galaxy likely gets its distorted spiral appearance from a gravitational interaction with its close-by…
NGC 1672: Barred Spiral Galaxy from Hubble
Many spiral galaxies have bars across their centers. Even our own Milky Way Galaxy is thought to have a modest central bar . Prominently barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672, featured…
NGC 1499: The California Nebula
Could Queen Calafia 's mythical island exist in space? Perhaps not, but by chance the outline of this molecular space cloud echoes the outline of the state of California , USA.…
Viewing discoveries from 2 April 2025 through 10 March 2025.