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.
Comet 45P Returns
An old comet has returned to the inner Solar System. Not only is Comet 45P/HondaMrkosPajdukov physically ancient, it was first discovered 13 orbits ago in 1948. Comet 45P spends…
A Full Sky Aurora Over Norway
Higher than the highest building , higher than the highest mountain , higher than the highest airplane , lies the realm of the aurora. Auroras rarely reach below 60 kilometers,…
Infrared Trifid
The Trifid Nebula, also known as Messier 20 , is easy to find with a small telescope, a well known stop in the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius . But where visible light…
Lunar Farside
Tidally locked in synchronous rotation , the Moon always presents its familiar nearside to denizens of planet Earth . From lunar orbit , the Moon's farside can become familiar,…
Shell Game in the LMC
An alluring sight in southern skies, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is seen here through narrowband filters. The filters are designed to transmit only light emitted by ionized…
Curiosity Surveys Lower Mount Sharp on Mars
If you could stand on Mars -- what might you see? If you were the Curiosity rover , then just last month you would have contemplated the featured image -- a breathtaking panorama…
M31: The Andromeda Galaxy
What is the nearest major galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy ? Andromeda. In fact, our Galaxy is thought to look much like Andromeda . Together these two galaxies dominate the…
NGC 6357: Stellar Wonderland
For reasons unknown, NGC 6357 is forming some of the most massive stars ever discovered. This complex wonderland of star formation consists of numerous filaments of dust and gas…
The Magnificent Horsehead Nebula
Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud by chance has assumed this recognizable shape . Fittingly named the Horsehead Nebula , it is some…
Fox Fur, Unicorn, and Christmas Tree
Clouds of glowing hydrogen gas fill this colorful skyscape in the faint but fanciful constellation Monoceros , the Unicorn. A star forming region cataloged as NGC 2264 , the…
Once Upon a Solstice Eve
Once upon a solstice eve a little prince gazed across a frozen little planet at the edge of a large galaxy. The little planet was planet Earth of course, seen in this horizon to…
An Airplane Glory
Looking out the window of an airplane, you might be lucky enough to see “the glory” in the direction directly opposite the Sun. Before airplanes , the phenomenon, known to some as…
Traces of the Sun
This year the December Solstice is today, December 21, at 10:44 UT, the first day of winter in the north and summer in the south. To celebrate, watch this amazing timelapse video…
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…
Viewing discoveries from 2 January 2017 through 10 December 2016.