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.
Panoramic Eclipse Composite with Star Trails
What was happening in the sky during last week's total solar eclipse? This featured little-planet , all-sky , double time-lapse, digitally-fused composite captured celestial…
Saturn in Blue and Gold
Why is Saturn partly blue? The featured picture of Saturn approximates what a human would see if hovering close to the giant ringed world. The image was taken in 2006 March by the…
A Fleeting Double Eclipse of the Sun
Last week, for a fraction of a second, the Sun was eclipsed twice. One week ago today, many people in North America were treated to a standard, single, partial solar eclipse .…
The Heart Nebula in Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Sulfur
What powers the Heart Nebula? The large emission nebula dubbed IC 1805 looks, in whole, like a heart . The nebula's glow -- as well as the shape of the gas and dust clouds -- is…
Hurricane Harvey Strengthens
A large and dangerous hurricane has developed in the Gulf of Mexico. The featured time-lapse video shows Hurricane Harvey) growing to Category 4 strength over the past few days,…
Diamond Ring in a Cloudy Sky
As the Moon's shadow swept across the US on August 21 , eclipse chasers in the narrow path of totality were treated to a diamond ring in the sky. At the beginning and end of…
The Eagle and The Swan
The Eagle Nebula and the Swan Nebula span this broad starscape , a telescopic view toward the Sagittarius spiral arm and the center of our Milky Way galaxy. The Eagle, also known…
The Crown of the Sun
During a total solar eclipse , the Sun's extensive outer atmosphere, or corona, is an inspirational sight. Streamers and shimmering features visible to the eye span a brightness…
A Total Solar Eclipse over Wyoming
Will the sky be clear enough to see the eclipse? This question was on the minds of many people attempting to view yesterday's solar eclipse. The path of total darkness crossed the…
Milky Way over Chilean Volcanoes
Sometimes, the sky mimics the ground. Taken in 2017 May from the Atacama Desert in Chile , the foreground of the featured image encompasses the dipping edge of the caldera of an…
Time-Lapse: A Total Solar Eclipse
Have you ever experienced a total eclipse of the Sun? This time-lapse movie depicts such an eclipse in dramatic detail, seen from Australia in 2012. As the video begins, a slight…
Total Solar Eclipse of 1979
From cold, clear skies over Riverton, Manitoba, Canada, planet Earth, the solar corona surrounds the silhouette of the New Moon in this telescopic snapshot of the total solar…
Perseids over the Pyrénées
This mountain and night skyscape stretches across the French Pyrenees National Park on August 12, near the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower. The multi-exposure panoramic…
NGC 2442: Galaxy in Volans
Distorted galaxy NGC 2442 can be found in the southern constellation of the flying fish , (Piscis) Volans . Located about 50 million light-years away, the galaxy's two spiral arms…
Perseid by the Sea
Just after moonrise on August 12 this grain of cosmic sand fell by the sea, its momentary flash part of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower . To create the Perseid meteors, dust…
Stars, Gas, and Dust Battle in the Carina Nebula
Chaos reigns in the Carina Nebula where massive stars form and die. Striking and detailed, this close-up of a portion of the famous nebula is a combination of light emitted by…
Charon Flyover from New Horizons
What if you could fly over Pluto's moon Charon -- what might you see? The New Horizons spacecraft did just this in 2015 July as it zipped past Pluto and Charon with cameras…
Detailed View of a Solar Eclipse Corona
Only in the fleeting darkness of a total solar eclipse is the light of the solar corona easily visible. Normally overwhelmed by the bright solar disk, the expansive corona , the…
A Day in the Life of a (mostly) Human Sundial
Have you ever wanted to be a gnomon? Of course, a gnomon is the tall part of a sundial that casts a shadow. The gnomon's shadow moves as the Sun moves across the sky, indicating…
A Total Solar Eclipse of Saros 145
A darkened sky holds bright planet Venus, the New Moon in silhouette, and the shimmering corona of the Sun in this image of a total solar eclipse. A composite of simultaneous…
Night of the Perseids
This weekend, meteors will rain down near the peak of the annual Perseid Meteor Shower. Normally bright and colorful, the Perseid shower meteors are produced by dust swept up by…
August's Lunar Eclipse
August's Full Moon is framed in this sharp, high dynamic range composition . Captured before sunrise on August 8 from Sydney, Australia, south is up and the curve of the Earth's…
Density Waves in Saturn's Rings from Cassini
What causes the patterns in Saturn's rings? The Cassini spacecraft , soon ending its 13 years orbiting Saturn , has sent back another spectacular image of Saturn's immense ring…
Spiral Galaxy NGC 1512: The Inner Ring
Most galaxies don't have any rings -- why does this galaxy have two? To begin, the bright band near NGC 1512 's center is a nuclear ring , a ring that surrounds the galaxy center…
Viewing discoveries from 30 August 2017 through 7 August 2017.