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.
The Soul Nebula in Infrared from Herschel
Stars are forming in the Soul of the Queen of Aethiopia. More specifically, a large star forming region called the Soul Nebula can be found in the direction of the constellation…
Ice Ring around Nearby Star Fomalhaut
Why is there a large ice ring around Fomalhaut? This interesting star -- easily visible in the night sky -- lies only about 25 light-years away and is known to be orbited by at…
Two Comets and a Star Cluster
Two unusual spots are on the move near the famous Pleiades star cluster. Shifting only a small amount per night, these spots are actually comets in our nearby Solar System that by…
Concept Plane: Supersonic Green Machine
What will passenger airplanes be like in the future? To help brainstorm desirable and workable attributes, NASA sponsors design competitions . Shown here is an artist's depiction…
Portrait of NGC 281
Look through the cosmic cloud cataloged as NGC 281 and you might miss the stars of open cluster IC 1590 . Still, formed within the nebula that cluster's young, massive stars…
Puppis A Supernova Remnant
Driven by the explosion of a massive star, supernova remnant Puppis A is blasting into the surrounding interstellar medium about 7,000 light-years away. At that distance, this…
LIGO-Virgo GW170814 Skymap
From around planet Earth three gravitational wave detectors have now reported a joint detection of ripples in spacetime, the fourth announced detection of a binary black hole…
Layers of a Total Solar Eclipse
Neither rain, nor snow, nor dark of night can keep a space-based spacecraft from watching the Sun . In fact, from its vantage point 1.5 million kilometers sunward of planet Earth,…
Cassini's Last Ring Portrait at Saturn
How should Cassini say farewell to Saturn? Three days before plunging into Saturn 's sunny side, the robotic Cassini spacecraft swooped far behind Saturn's night side with cameras…
Massive Shell-Expelling Star G79.29+0.46
Stars this volatile are quite rare. Captured in the midst of dust clouds and visible to the right and above center is massive G79.29+0.46 , one of less than 100 luminous blue…
How to Identify that Light in the Sky
What is that light in the sky? Perhaps one of humanity's more common questions, an answer may result from a few quick observations. For example -- is it moving or blinking? If so,…
A Conjunction of Comets
A conjunction of comets is captured in this pretty star field from the morning of September 17. Discovered in July by a robotic sky survey searching for supernovae , comet C/2017…
Solar Eclipse Solargraph
Today is the September equinox . Heading south, the Sun's path through the sky will cross the celestial equator at 20:02 UT . Of course the equinox date results in (mostly) equal…
A September Morning Sky
The Moon, three planets, and a bright star gathered near the ecliptic plane in the September 18 morning sky over Veszprem Castle, Hungary. In this twilight skyscape, Mercury and…
The Big Corona
Most photographs don't adequately portray the magnificence of the Sun 's corona. Seeing the corona first-hand during a total solar eclipse is unparalleled . The human eye can…
Veil Nebula: Wisps of an Exploded Star
Wisps like this are all that remain visible of a Milky Way star. About 7,000 years ago that star exploded in a supernova leaving the Veil Nebula . At the time, the expanding cloud…
Orion above Easter Island
Why were the statues on Easter Island built? No one is sure. What is sure is that over 800 large stone statues exist there. The Easter Island statues , stand, on the average, over…
Bright Spiral Galaxy M81
One of the brightest galaxies in planet Earth's sky is similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy: big, beautiful M81 . This grand spiral galaxy can be found toward the northern…
Cassini's Final Image
As planned, the Cassini spacecraft impacted the upper atmosphere of Saturn on September 15, after a 13 year long exploration of the Saturnian System . With spacecraft thrusters…
100 Steps Forward
A beautiful conjunction of Venus and Moon, human, sand, and Milky Way is depicted in this night skyscape from planet Earth. The scene is a panorama of 6 photos taken in a moment…
Flare Well AR2673
Almost out of view from our fair planet , rotating around the Sun's western edge giant active region AR2673 lashed out with another intense solar flare followed by a large coronal…
NGC 6334: The Cat's Paw Nebula
Nebulas are perhaps as famous for being identified with familiar shapes as perhaps cats are for getting into trouble . Still, no known cat could have created the vast Cat's Paw…
A Total Solar Eclipse Close-Up in Real Time
How would you feel if the Sun disappeared? Many eclipse watchers across the USA surprised themselves with the awe that they felt and the exclamations that they made as the Sun…
Cassini Approaches Saturn
What would it look like to approach Saturn in a spaceship? One doesn't have to just imagine -- the Cassini spacecraft did just this in 2004, recording thousands of images along…
Viewing discoveries from 4 October 2017 through 11 September 2017.