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.
Tutulemma: Solar Eclipse Analemma
If you went outside at exactly the same time every day and took a picture that included the Sun, how would the Sun's position change? With great planning and effort, such a series…
Map of Total Solar Eclipse Path in 2017 August
Would you like to see a total eclipse of the Sun? If so, do any friends or relatives live near the path of next summer's eclipse ? If yes again, then you might want to arrange a…
Gamma-rays and Comet Dust
Gamma-rays and dust from periodic Comet Swift-Tuttle plowed through planet Earth's atmosphere on the night of August 11/12. Impacting at about 60 kilometers per second the grains…
Perseid Fireball at Sunset Crater
On the night of August 12, this bright Perseid meteor flashed above volcanic Sunset Crater National Monument, Arizona, USA, planet Earth . Streaking along the summer Milky Way,…
Perseid Night at Yosemite
The 2016 Perseid meteor shower performed well on the night of August 11/12. The sky on that memorable evening was recorded from a perch overlooking Yosemite Valley , planet Earth…
Meteor before Galaxy
What's that green streak in front of the Andromeda galaxy? A meteor. While photographing the Andromeda galaxy last Friday, near the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower , a…
Five Planets and the Moon over Australia
It is not a coincidence that planets line up. That's because all of the planets orbit the Sun in (nearly) a single sheet called the plane of the ecliptic . When viewed from inside…
Human as Spaceship
You are a spaceship soaring through the universe. So is your dog . We all carry with us trillions of microorganisms as we go through life. These multitudes of bacteria , fungi ,…
The Keyhole in the Carina Nebula
The dark dusty Keyhole Nebula gets its name from its unusual shape. The looping Keyhole, in this featured classic image by the Hubble Space Telescope , is a smaller region inside…
Perseid from Torralba del Burgo
Perseid meteors rained on planet Earth last night. This year the stream of dust from periodic comet Swift-Tuttle has produced a stunningly active shower of bright cosmic streaks.…
The Easterbunny Comes to NGC 4725
At first called “Easterbunny” by its discovery team, officially named Makemake is the second brightest dwarf planet of the Kuiper belt . The icy world appears twice in this…
Perseid, Aurora, and Noctilucent Clouds
Night skies over northern Sweden can hold some tantalizing sights in August. Gazing toward the Big Dipper, this beautiful skyscape captures three of them in a single frame taken…
Colliding Galaxies in Stephan's Quintet
Will either of these galaxies survive? In what might be dubbed as a semi-final round in a galactic elimination tournament, the two spirals of NGC 7318 are colliding. The featured…
Mars at Closest Approach
When does Mars appear the largest? This occurs when Earth sweeps past Mars in their respective orbits around the Sun, creating a momentary Sun-Earth-Mars alignment called…
Perseid Meteors over Mount Shasta
Where are all of these meteors coming from? In terms of direction on the sky, the pointed answer is the constellation of Perseus. That is why the meteor shower that peaks later…
Io: Moon over Jupiter
How big is Jupiter's moon Io ? The most volcanic body in the Solar System, Io (usually pronounced “EYE-oh”) is 3,600 kilometers in diameter, about the size of planet Earth's…
Las Campanas Moon and Mercury
Last Thursday the view toward sunset from the 2.5 kilometer summit of Cerro Las Campanas in the remote Chilean Andes was amazing. Bright but fading Mercury stood very close to a…
Apollo 15 Panorama
On July 31, 1971 , Apollo 15 astronauts Jim Irwin and Dave Scott deployed the first Lunar Roving Vehicle on the Moon. Using it to explore their Hadley-Apennine landing site they…
M63: Sunflower Galaxy Wide Field
The Sunflower Galaxy blooms near the center of this wide field telescopic view . The scene spans about 2 degrees or 4 full moons on the sky toward the loyal constellation Canes…
Behold the Universe
What if you climbed up on a rock and discovered the Universe? You can. Although others have noted much of it before, you can locate for yourself stars , planets , and even the…
A Rocket Booster Falls Back to Earth
What's that crossing the sky? Although it looked a bit like a large meteor, it was actually the booster of a Chinese rocket returning to Earth after its launch two days earlier.…
Behind Saturn
What's behind Saturn? The first answer is the camera itself, perched on the Cassini spacecraft currently orbiting behind the planet with the most grand ring system in our Solar…
A Huge Solar Filament Erupts
Filaments sometimes explode off the Sun. Featured, a huge filament had been seen hovering over the Sun's surface for over a week before it erupted late in 2010. The image sequence…
Ripples Through a Dark Sky
Sunlight ripples through a dark sky on this Swedish summer midnight as noctilucent or night shining clouds seem to imitate the river below. In fact, the seasonal clouds often…
Viewing discoveries from 22 August 2016 through 30 July 2016.