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.
Apogee's Full Moon
This big, bright, beautiful Full Moon rose over Lick Observatory Wednesday night. Traditionally a full moon in January might be called the Wolf Moon . But this moon reached its…
M83 Star Streams
Big, bright, and beautiful, spiral galaxy M83 lies a mere twelve million light-years away, near the southeastern tip of the very long constellation Hydra . This deep view of the…
Despina, Moon of Neptune
Despina is a tiny moon of Neptune . A mere 148 kilometers across, diminutive Despina was discovered in 1989, in images from the Voyager 2 spacecraft taken during its encounter…
Spitzer's Orion
Few cosmic vistas excite the imagination like the Orion Nebula , an immense stellar nursery some 1,500 light-years away. This stunning false-color view spans about 40 light-years…
The Gegenschein Over Chile
Is the night sky darkest in the direction opposite the Sun? No. In fact, a rarely discernable faint glow known as the gegenschein (German for “counter glow”) can be seen 180…
A Trip to the Moon
What would it be like to visit the Moon? The first major fictional cinematic film exploring this enduring transcultural fantasy was titled Le voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the…
The Scale of the Universe - Interactive
What does the universe look like on small scales? On large scales? Humanity is discovering that the universe is a very different place on every proportion that has been explored.…
The Seagull Nebula
A broad expanse of glowing gas and dust presents a bird-like visage to astronomers from planet Earth , suggesting its popular moniker - The Seagull Nebula. This portrait of the…
NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula
A mere seven hundred light years from Earth, in the constellation Aquarius , a sun-like star is dying. Its last few thousand years have produced the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293), a…
The Tadpoles of IC 410
This telescopic close-up shows off the otherwise faint emission nebula IC 410 in striking false-colors. It also features two remarkable inhabitants of the cosmic pond of gas and…
Sunspot at Sunset
Sunsets may be the most watched celestial event, but lately sunsets have even offered something extra . A sunspot so large it was visible to the naked eye is captured in Swiss…
M7: Open Star Cluster in Scorpius
M7 is one of the most prominent open clusters of stars on the sky. The cluster, dominated by bright blue stars , can be seen with the naked eye in a dark sky in the tail of the…
Three CubeSats Released
Cubes are orbiting the Earth. Measuring ten-centimeters on a side, CubeSats -- each roughly the size of a large coffee mug -- are designed to be inexpensive both to build and to…
Galaxy NGC 474: Shells and Star Streams
What's happening to galaxy NGC 474? The multiple layers of emission appear strangely complex and unexpected given the relatively featureless appearance of the elliptical galaxy in…
Clouds and Crescents
A crescent Venus shines along the western horizon at dusk in this clearing sky . The Earth's sister planet is smiling between the low clouds near the bottom of the frame during…
Lovejoy in the New Year
A rival to vanquished Comet ISON in 2013, Comet Lovejoy (C/2013 R1) still sweeps through early morning skies, captured in this starry scene on New Year's day. The frame stretches…
Reflections on Planet Earth
Catching sight of your reflection in a store window or shiny hubcap can be entertaining and occasionally even inspire a thoughtful moment . So consider this reflective view from…
A New Year's Crescent
That's not the young crescent Moon poised above the western horizon at sunset. Instead it's Venus in a crescent phase , captured with a long telephoto lens from Quebec City,…
The Horsehead Nebula
The Horsehead Nebula is one of the most famous nebulae on the sky . It is visible as the dark indentation to the red emission nebula in the center of the above photograph. The…
Quantum Streampunk Fantasy Fractal Landscape
What strange world is this? Pictured above is no real place but rather a purely mathematical visualization of a generalization of a fractal into three dimensions. Classical…
Time-Lapse Auroras Over Norway
Sometimes, after your eyes adapt to the dark, a spectacular sky appears. Such was the case in 2011 March when one of the largest auroral displays in recent years appeared over…
Alaska Aurora Sequence
A remarkably intense auroral band flooded the northern night with shimmering colors on December 7. The stunning sequence captured here was made with a camera fixed to a tripod…
Melotte 15 in the Heart
Cosmic clouds seem to form fantastic shapes in the central regions of emission nebula IC 1805. Of course, the clouds are sculpted by stellar winds and radiation from massive hot…
The Hydrogen Clouds of M33
Gorgeous spiral galaxy M33 seems to have more than its fair share of glowing hydrogen gas. A prominent member of the local group of galaxies, M33 is also known as the Triangulum…
Viewing discoveries from 18 January 2014 through 26 December 2013.