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.
Twilight with Moon and Planets
Only two days after the February New Moon's annular eclipse of the Sun, a slender lunar crescent poses near the western horizon in this wintry twilight skyscape. Its nightside…
B93: A Dark Interstellar Ghost
“A ghost in the Milky Way…” says Christian Bertincourt, the astrophotographer behind this striking image of Barnard 93 (B93). The 93rd entry in Barnard’s Catalogue of Dark Nebula…
IC 2574: Coddington's Nebula
Grand spiral galaxies often seem to get all the glory, flaunting their young, bright, blue star clusters in beautiful, symmetric spiral arms. But small, irregular galaxies form…
Orion's Cradle
Cradled in red-glowing hydrogen gas, stars are being born in Orion. These stellar nurseries lie at the edge of the giant Orion molecular cloud complex , some 1,500 light-years…
Tails of Comet Wierzchoś
Some comets are regular guests of our solar neighborhood; others come by only once, never to return. We won’t have another chance to see Comet C/2024 E1 (Wierzchoś ), which is…
Unexplained Shocks Around a White Dwarf Star
How is RXJ0528+2838 creating such shock waves? A recently discovered white dwarf star , the farther left of the two largest white spots, RXJ0528+2838 , was found 730 light-years…
To Fly Free in Space
What would it be like to fly free in space? About 100 meters from the cargo bay of a space shuttle , Bruce McCandless II was living the dream -- floating farther out than anyone…
Roses are Red
Roses are red, nebulas are too, and this Valentine's gift is a stunning view! Pictured is a loving look at the Rosette Nebula ( NGC 2237 ): a cosmic bloom of bright young stars…
NGC 147 and NGC 185
Dwarf galaxies NGC 147 (left) and NGC 185 stand side by side in this deep telescopic portrait. The two are not-often-imaged satellite galaxies of M31, the great spiral Andromeda…
The Bay of Rainbows
Dark, smooth regions that cover the Moon's familiar face are called by Latin names for oceans and seas. That naming convention is historical , though it may seem a little ironic…
A Year of Sunspots
How many sunspots can you see? The central image shows the many sunspots that occurred in 2025, month by month around the circle, and all together in the grand central image. Each…
In Green Company: Aurora over Norway
Raise your arms if you see an aurora. With those instructions, two nights went by with, well, clouds -- mostly. On the third night of returning to same peaks, though, the sky not…
Miranda Revisited
What is Miranda really like? Visually, old image s from NASA's Voyager 2 have been recently combined and remastered to result in the featured image of Uranus 's 500-kilometer-wide…
Active Sunspot Region 4366 Crosses the Sun
An unusually active sunspot region is now crossing the Sun. The region, labelled AR 4366 , is much larger than the Earth and has produced several powerful solar flare s over the…
Crescent Enceladus
Peering from the shadows, the Saturn-facing hemisphere of tantalizing inner moon Enceladus poses in this Cassini spacecraft image. North is up in the dramatic scene captured…
Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A
Massive stars in our Milky Way Galaxy live spectacular lives. Collapsing from vast cosmic clouds, their nuclear furnaces ignite and create heavy elements in their cores. After…
NGC 1275 in the Perseus Cluster
Active galaxy NGC 1275 is the central, dominant member of the large and relatively nearby Perseus Cluster of Galaxies . Wild-looking at visible wavelengths, the active galaxy is…
Spiral Galaxy NGC 1512: Wide Field
Most galaxies don't have any rings -- why does this galaxy have three? To begin, a ring that's near NGC 1512 's center -- and so hard to see here -- is the nuclear ring which…
Red Spider Planetary Nebula from Webb
Oh what a tangled web a planetary nebula can weave. The Red Spider Planetary Nebula shows the complex structure that can result when a normal star ejects its outer gases and…
Orion: The Running Man Nebula
What part of Orion is this? Just north of the famous Orion Nebula is a picturesque star forming region in Orion's Sword that contains a lot of intricate dust -- some of which…
Galle: Happy Face Crater on Mars
Mars has put on a happy face. The Martian crater Galle is famous because it has internal markings that make it look like a face that is both smiling and winking. These markings…
Artemis I: Flight Day 13
On flight day 13 (November 28, 2022) of the Artemis 1 mission, the Orion spacecraft reached its maximum distance from Earth. At over 430,000 kilometers from Earth, its distant…
NGC 1333: Stellar Nursery in Perseus
NGC 1333 is seen in visible light as a reflection nebula , dominated by bluish hues characteristic of starlight reflected by interstellar dust. A mere 1,000 light-years distant…
NGC 2442: Galaxy in Volans
Distorted galaxy NGC 2442 can be found in the southern constellation of the flying fish, (Piscis) Volans . Located about 50 million light-years away, the galaxy's two spiral arms…
Viewing discoveries from 21 February 2026 through 29 January 2026.