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.
Sibling Supernova Remnants
What happens when one of the stars in a binary goes supernova? This image combines visible (yellow), ultraviolet (purple) and infrared light (cyan, red and orange) to show two…
The Cotton Candy Clouds of Rho Ophiuchi
Although they look like cotton candy, you cannot eat these clouds! Taken in Cádiz, Spain , today's image features the Rho Ophiuchi complex , a rich tapestry of young and old…
Unusually Smooth Sections of Asteroid Itokawa
Why are parts of this asteroid's surface so smooth? The answer seems likely to do with the dynamics of an asteroid that is a loose pile of rubble rather than a solid rock. The…
M82: Galaxy with a Supergalactic Wind
Why is the Cigar Galaxy billowing red smoke? M82 , as this starburst galaxy is also known, was stirred up by a recent pass near large spiral galaxy M81 . This doesn't fully…
AR 4478: Giant Sunspot Group
Right now, one of the largest sunspot groups in recent history is crossing the Sun. Active Region 4478 is not only big -- it's violent, showing tangled magnetic fields capable of…
Mars Marathon by Perseverance
In this recent HiRISE view from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the little green dot indicated on the surface of the big Red Planet is the Perseverance Mars rover. Recorded on…
Milky Way Urban Style
In a cosmic vista you can never see, the Milky Way arcs through the night above Seoul, South Korea. Remarkably, this urban night skyscape reveals our galaxy's faintly luminous…
Anticrepuscular Rays over Sicily
The Sun has just set... in the opposite side of the sky. Pictured here are anticrepuscular rays apparently converging in the east in this image of the limestone plateau in the…
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SDO Observes a Coronal Mass Ejection
Why does the Sun throw stuff at us? The Sun’s surface is a churning soup of energetic electrons and ions called plasma . The motion of those charged particles creates magnetic…
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Flying Past Neptune's Moon Triton
What would it look like to fly past Triton , the largest moon of planet Neptune ? Only one spacecraft has ever done this -- and the images of this dramatic encounter have been…
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…
Keogram: The Sky in 2025
What if you could see the entire sky -- all at once -- for an entire year? That, very nearly, is what is pictured here. Every 15 seconds during 2025, an all-sky camera took an…
Daytime Moon Meets Evening Star
Venus is now appearing on the celestial stage as Earth's brilliant evening star, performing with the Moon, other wandering planets, and bright stars in western skies. For evening…
Starry Night II
Does this scene look familiar? It is a modern recreation of the famous painting Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh . Both the image and the painting depict a tall tree on the left,…
Possible Supernova Remnant in Galactic Center
Do you see that blue blob to the lower right of the image center? Astronomers think that it shows where a massive star exploded as a supernova whose light reached Earth 1,700…
Longmore 8: The Hamster Wheel Nebula
How did a hamster wheel get into space? The Hamster Wheel Nebula (Longmore 8) was discovered by Andrew Longmore in 1976 as a part of a larger survey of the southern sky. This…
Moons, Rings, Shadows, Clouds: Saturn (Cassini)
While cruising around Saturn, be on the lookout for picturesque arrangements of moons, rings, and shadows. One such striking sight occurred in 2005 and was captured by the then…
Triple Shockwave from Sun Crossing Rocket
What's happening to this Sun-crossing rocket? The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, visible on the upper left, launched only about one minute before this amazing image was captured. As it…
10 Days of Venus and Jupiter
Venus and Jupiter may have caught your attention lately. The recent close conjunction of the two brightest planets in recent evening skies has been hard to miss . With Jupiter at…
Interplanetary Earth
In an interplanetary first, on July 19, 2013 Earth was photographed on the same day from two other worlds of the Solar System, innermost planet Mercury and ringed gas giant…
Venus and Jupiter: Conjunction from Avebury
To see Venus and Jupiter together this month, you won't need binoculars or even a telescope. Just look up after sunset and you'll find them emerging as the sky grows dark near the…
The Mermaid Nebula Supernova Remnant
Could the Little Mermaid turn into stardust instead of seafoam? It would seem so in this beautiful nebula . The featured image shows the Mermaid Nebula , also known as the Betta…
The Eagle Nebula and Friends
What looks as if it is going to swallow the great Pillars of Creation ? The Eagle Nebula ( M16 ) is not a bird, a plane, or Superman . M16 is actually a combination of several…
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…
Viewing discoveries from 2 July 2026 through 9 June 2026.