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.
Spiral Meteor through the Heart Nebula
What is this meteor doing? Dynamically, the unusually short and asymmetric train may indicate that the sand-sized grain at the center of the glow is momentarily spinning as it…
Io over Jupiter from Voyager 1
Back in 1979, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft flew past Jupiter and its moons. The images in this mosaic, featuring the moon Io against a background of gas giant Jupiter's diffuse…
Reunion Island Eclipse
The New Moon's dark shadow crossed planet Earth on September 1. In silhouette the Moon didn't quite cover the Sun though, creating an an annular solar eclipse . The shadow's…
Little Planet Astro Camp
Day and night on this little planet look a lot like day and night on planet Earth. In fact, the images used to construct the little planet projection, a digitally warped and…
Light at the End of the Road
The bright light at the end of this country road is actually a remarkably close conjunction of two planets. After sunset on August 27 brilliant Venus and Jupiter almost appear as…
Annular Solar Eclipse over New Mexico
What is this person doing? In 2012 an annular eclipse of the Sun was visible over a narrow path that crossed the northern Pacific Ocean and several western US states. In an…
Aurora over Icelandic Fault
Admire the beauty but fear the beast. The beauty is the aurora overhead , here taking the form of great green spiral , seen between picturesque clouds with the bright Moon to the…
Young Suns of NGC 7129
Young suns still lie within dusty NGC 7129 , some 3,000 light-years away toward the royal constellation Cepheus . While these stars are at a relatively tender age, only a few…
Abell 370: Galaxy Cluster Gravitational Lens
What is that strange arc? While imaging the cluster of galaxies Abell 370, astronomers had noted an unusual arc to the right of many cluster galaxies. Although curious, one…
Lunar Orbiter Earthset
August 10th was the 50th anniversary of the launch of Lunar Orbiter 1. It was the first of five Lunar Orbiters intended to photograph the Moon's surface to aid in the selection of…
The Milky Way Sets
Under dark skies the setting of the Milky Way can be a dramatic sight. Stretching nearly parallel to the horizon, this rich, edge-on vista of our galaxy above the dusty Namibian…
Closest Star has Potentially Habitable Planet
The star closest to the Sun has a planet similar to the Earth. As announced yesterday , recent observations confirmed that this planet not only exists but inhabits a zone where…
Curiosity at Murray Buttes on Mars
What are these unusual lumps on Mars? As NASA 's robotic Curiosity rover continues rolling across Mars , it is now approaching Murray Buttes . Several of the 15-meter high buttes…
Gigantic Jet Lightning over China
That's no meteor. While watching and photographing this year's Perseid Meteor Shower, something unexpected happened: a gigantic jet erupted from a nearby cloud. The whole thing…
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.…
Viewing discoveries from 5 September 2016 through 13 August 2016.