Browse NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day archive by date and media: Archive Discoveries
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The Case of the Mysterious Maybe Meteor
Whatdunit? What disappeared while crossing a partially eclipsed Sun? Let’s present the evidence. The 24 frames-per-second video was taken in Spain (40°34'30.3"N 1°12'28.8"W) at…
Perseids from Perseus
This was a good year for the Perseids meteor shower. A key reason was the Moon was absent from lighting up Earth's night sky so that more meteors were visible than usual. Where…
A Golden Corona Eclipse
This total solar eclipse appeared not only poetically beautiful but scientifically interesting. Usually the solar corona appears white, and to some observers the corona of last…
Milky Way over Yellowstone
The Milky Way was not created by an evaporating lake. The colorful pool of water, about 10 meters across, is known as Silex Spring and is located in Yellowstone National Park in…
Bright Perseids from Sweden
Known for its bright and fast meteors, the annual Perseid Meteor Shower comes to planet Earth's skies from a radiant in the heroic constellation Perseus. The popular northern…
Total Solar Eclipse from Greenland
On August 12, the Moon's shadow reached out to touch our fair planet. Beginning in the Arctic Ocean, it swept along a narrow track that led the dark lunar umbra across parts of…
Total Solar Eclipse Over Spain
On August 12th, 2026, the Moon totally eclipsed the Sun and cast its shadow across Siberia, Greenland, Iceland, Spain, and Portugal. Today’s image features two total solar…
Perseids over a Little Planet
It looks like a view from the Little Prince's planet. The featured image is a throwback to the 2024 Perseid meteor shower, surrounded in this projection by the Bieszczady…
Six Moons of Saturn
How many moons does Saturn have? While the total will likely continue to grow, as of June 2026 the ringed gas giant had 293 confirmed moons. That's easily more than any other…
Three Galaxy Pairs
Each of these pairs of galaxies is different. The two galaxies at the top are likely not interacting, at least presently. However, the top galaxy with the blue stripe, NGC 4650A,…
Contemplating the Sun
Have you contemplated your home star recently? Featured here, a Sun partially eclipsed on the top left by the Moon is also seen eclipsed by earthlings contemplating the eclipse…
A Messier Moment for Tempel 2
Which of these is not a comet? You guessed it - the one on the right is a globular star cluster. The diffuse greenish coma of periodic comet 10P/Tempel 2 is at left in the frame.…
Rubin's COSMOS Field
There are more than half a million galaxies in the central panel of this image from the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. This is the COSMOS field, a patch of sky…
New Sharpest Image of the Sun Uncovers Instability
What does the new sharpest image of our Sun show? Instability. To be clear, a certain kind of interactive process called the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI). This instability…
Spokes on Saturn's B Ring
Don’t get spooked by Saturn’s ghostly spokes! Today we feature a nearly two-hour timelapse of Saturn and its rings looping forwards and backwards. If you look closely, a ghoulish…
Curious Cometary Knots in the Helix Nebula
What causes unusual knots of gas and dust in planetary nebulas? Seen also in the Ring Nebula, the Dumbbell Nebula and NGC 2392, the knots' existence was not initially predicted,…
Vaporizing Meteor Photobombs the Lacerta Nebula
What's happening to this meteor? This bright meteor streak appeared and disappeared quickly during a long exposure of the Great Lacerta Nebula, seen faintly in red toward the…
A Fire Rainbow over West Virginia
What's happening to this cloud? Ice crystals in a distant cirrus cloud are acting like little floating prisms. Known informally as a fire rainbow for its flame-like appearance, a…
Buck Moon and Belt of Venus
The Buck Moon is a traditional name for the full moon of July. In this colorful Adriatic sea and skyscape captured on July 28 from Krk Island along the coast of Croatia, a full…
NGC 4372 and the Dark Doodad
The Dark Doodad Nebula drifts through southern skies, a tantalizing target for binoculars toward the small constellation Musca, The Fly. A dusty interstellar cloud, it's seen…
Red Sun through Wildfire Smoke
This could be the view from an exoplanet orbiting around a red dwarf star, but it is our own Sun. This image of was taken on July 22, 2026, in the Okanagan region in the Canadian…
Psyche Receives Gravity Assist from Mars
Solar System bodies make deep space exploration more fuel efficient! Today’s video shows the Psyche spacecraft gaining speed and changing its trajectory with minimal fuel spent…
Barnards Loop over Twin Volcanoes
What's connecting these two volcanoes? In ancient folklore, the two volcanoes, Parinacota (left) and Pomerape (right), are connected by representing a mythical prince and princess…
NGC 7635: The Bubble Nebula
What created this huge space bubble? Blown by the wind from a star, this tantalizing, head-like apparition is cataloged as NGC 7635, but known simply as the Bubble Nebula. Taken…
Viewing discoveries from 19 August 2026 through 27 July 2026.