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.
Under the Galaxy
The Large Magellanic Cloud , a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, stands above the southern horizon in this telephoto view from Las Campanas Observatory, planet Earth . In the…
NGC 1365: Majestic Island Universe
Barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is truly a majestic island universe some 200,000 light-years across. Located a mere 60 million light-years away toward the chemical constellation…
Star Cluster NGC 362 from Hubble
If our Sun were near the center of NGC 362, the night sky would glow like a jewel box of bright stars. Hundreds of stars would glow brighter than Sirius , and in many different…
Milky Way and Zodiacal Light over Australian Pinnacles
What strange world is this? E a r t h . In the foreground of the featured image are the Pinnacles , unusual rock spires in Nambung National Park in Western Australia . Made of…
Unusual Mountain Ahuna Mons on Asteroid Ceres
What created this unusual mountain? Ahuna Mons is the largest mountain on the largest known asteroid in our Solar System , Ceres , which orbits our Sun in the main asteroid belt…
Dark Molecular Cloud Barnard 68
Where did all the stars go? What used to be considered a hole in the sky is now known to astronomers as a dark molecular cloud . Here, a high concentration of dust and molecular…
Eclipsosaurus Rex
We live in an era where total solar eclipses are possible because at times the apparent size of the Moon can just cover the disk of the Sun. But the Moon is slowly moving away…
Global Aurora at Mars
A strong solar event last month triggered intense global aurora at Mars . Before (left) and during (right) the solar storm, these projections show the sudden increase in…
Pluto's Bladed Terrain
Imaged during the New Horizons spacecraft flyby in July 2015, Pluto's bladed terrain is captured in this close-up of the distant world. The bizarre texture belongs to fields of…
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…
Viewing discoveries from 13 October 2017 through 20 September 2017.