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.
Sharpless 308: Star Bubble
Blown by fast winds from a hot, massive star, this cosmic bubble is huge. Cataloged as Sharpless 2-308 it lies some 5,200 light-years away toward the constellation of the Big Dog…
Supermoon over Spanish Castle
No, this castle was not built with the Moon attached. To create the spectacular juxtaposition, careful planning and a bit of good weather was needed. Pictured, the last supermoon…
The Cartwheel Galaxy from Hubble
To some, it looks like the wheel of a cart. In fact, because of its outward oval appearance, the presence of a central galaxy , and their connection with what looks like the…
Southern Jupiter from Perijove 3
Southern Jupiter looms some 37,000 kilometers away in this JunoCam image from December 11. The image data was captured near Juno's third perijove or closest approach to Jupiter,…
Meteors vs Supermoon
Geminid meteors battled supermoonlight in planet Earth's night skies on December 13/14. Traveling at 35 kilometers (22 miles) per second , the bits of dust from the mysterious…
Seagull to Sirius
This broad, beautiful mosaic spans almost 20 degrees across planet Earth's sky. The nebula-rich region lies near the edge of the Orion-Eridanus superbubble, filled with looping,…
The Lagoon Nebula in High Definition
Stars are battling gas and dust in the Lagoon Nebula but the photographers are winning. Also known as M8, this photogenic nebula is visible even without binoculars towards the…
Meteors over Four Girls Mountain
On some nights it rains meteors. Peaking over the next two nights, asteroid dust is expected to rain down on Earth during the annual Geminids meteor shower . This year,…
Over Saturn's Turbulent North Pole
The Cassini spacecraft's Grand Finale at Saturn has begun. The Grand Finale will allow Cassini to explore Saturn and some of Saturn's moons and rings in unprecedented detail. The…
The Extraordinary Spiral in LL Pegasi
What created the strange spiral structure on the left? No one is sure, although it is likely related to a star in a binary star system entering the planetary nebula phase, when…
The Lunar X
The striking X appearing in this lunarscape is easily visible in binoculars or a small telescope. Yet, not too many have seen it. The catch is this lunar X is fleeting, only…
IC 4628: The Prawn Nebula
South of Antares , in the tail of the nebula-rich constellation Scorpius , lies emission nebula IC 4628. Nearby hot, massive stars , millions of years young, irradiate the nebula…
Whirlpool with Comets
Not a comet , bright spiral galaxy Messier 51 is popularly known as the Whirlpool Galaxy. Just off the handle of the Big Dipper in northern skies, you can spot it at the upper…
NGC 4696: Filaments around a Black Hole
What's happening at the center of elliptical galaxy NGC 4696? There, long tendrils of gas and dust have been imaged in great detail as shown by this recently released image from…
Aurora over Jupiter's South Pole from Juno
Why is there a glowing oval over Jupiter's South Pole? Aurora. Near the closest part of its first pass near Jupiter in August, NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno captured this…
Lightning over Colorado
Have you ever watched a lightning storm in awe? Join the crowd. Oddly, nobody knows exactly how lightning is produced. What is known is that charges slowly separate in some clouds…
Orion and Official Star Names
Familiar stars in Orion and constellations across the sky now have official names. Over the past year, the International Astronomical Union , the only body officially tasked with…
Galaxies in Pegasus
This wide, sharp telescopic view reveals galaxies scattered beyond the stars of the Milky Way at the northern boundary of the high-flying constellation Pegasus . Prominent at the…
A Triple Star is Born
A triple star system is forming, enshrouded within this dusty natal disk some 750 light-years away in the Perseus molecular cloud . Imaged at millimeter wavelengths by the Atacama…
Flaming Star Nebula
A runaway star lights the Flaming Star Nebula in this cosmic scene. Otherwise known as IC 405, the Flaming Star Nebula's billowing interstellar clouds of gas and dust lie about…
Milky Way over Shipwreck
What happened to this ship? It was carried aground by a giant storm that struck the coast of Argentina in 2002. The pictured abandoned boat, dubbed Naufragio del Chubasco ,…
W5: The Soul of Star Formation
Where do stars form? Many times, stars form in energetic regions where gas and dark dust are pushed around in chaotic mayhem. Pictured , bright massive stars near the center of W5…
Arp 240: A Bridge between Spiral Galaxies from Hubble
Why is there a bridge between these two spiral galaxies? Made of gas and stars, the bridge provides strong evidence that these two immense star systems have passed close to each…
Verona Rupes: Tallest Known Cliff in the Solar System
Could you survive a jump off the tallest cliff in the Solar System? Quite possibly. Verona Rupes on Uranus ' moon Miranda is estimated to be 20 kilometers deep -- ten times the…
Viewing discoveries from 20 December 2016 through 27 November 2016.