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.
Geminids of the North
Earth's annual Geminid meteor shower did not disappoint as our fair planet plowed through dust from active asteroid 3200 Phaethon. Captured in this northern hemisphere nightscape,…
Jupiter Diving
Take this simulated plunge and dive into the upper atmosphere of Jupiter, the Solar System's ruling gas giant. The awesome animation is based on image data from JunoCam, and the…
Meteors over Inner Mongolia
Did you ever get caught in a meteor shower? If yes, then every minute or so the sky sparked with fleeting flashes of light. This was the fate of the pictured astrophotographer…
Highlights of the Winter Sky
What's up in the sky this winter? The featured graphic gives a few highlights for Earth's northern hemisphere. Viewed as a clock face centered at the bottom, early winter sky…
Mercury Visualized from MESSENGER
What would it be like to fly over the planet Mercury? Images and data taken from NASA's robotic MESSENGER spacecraft that orbited Mercury from 2011 to 2015 have been digitally…
In Green Company: Aurora over Norway
Raise your arms if you see an aurora. With those instructions, two nights went by with, well, clouds -- mostly. On the third night of returning to same peaks, though, the sky not…
Stardust in Aries
This composition in stardust covers over 8 degrees on the northern sky. The mosaicked field of view is west of the familiar Pleiades star cluster, toward the zodiacal…
Alpine Superga Moonset
December's Full Moon phase occurred near perigee , the closest point in its orbit around our fair planet. Big and bright , the fully illuminated lunar disk sets over rugged…
All the Eclipses of 2017
As seen from planet Earth , all the lunar and solar eclipses of 2017 are represented at the same scale in these four panels. The year's celestial shadow play was followed through…
HH 666: Carina Dust Pillar with Jet
To some, it may look like a beehive harboring an evil bee . In reality, the featured Hubble image captures a cosmic pillar of dust, two- light years long, inside of which is…
A Horizon with Blue and Red
What's happening on the horizon? The horizon itself, past a spinach field in Guatemala , shows not only trees but a large volcano: the Volcn de Fuego (Volcano of Fire). The red…
Earth and Moon
On rare occasions, the Earth and Moon are photographed together. One of most spectacular times this occurred was 25 years ago this month when the Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft)…
Full Moon Silhouettes
Have you ever watched the Moon rise? The slow rise of a nearly full moon over a clear horizon can be an impressive sight. One impressive moonrise was imaged in early 2013 over…
Messier Craters in Stereo
Many bright nebulae and star clusters in planet Earth's sky are associated with the name of astronomer Charles Messier , from his famous 18th century catalog. His name is also…
North America and the Pelican
Fans of our fair planet might recognize the outlines of these cosmic clouds . On the left, bright emission outlined by dark, obscuring dust lanes seems to trace a continental…
M33: Triangulum Galaxy
The small, northern constellation Triangulum harbors this magnificent face-on spiral galaxy, M33. Its popular names include the Pinwheel Galaxy or just the Triangulum Galaxy . M33…
M42: The Great Orion Nebula
Few astronomical sights excite the imagination like the nearby stellar nursery known as the Orion Nebula. The Nebula 's glowing gas surrounds hot young stars at the edge of an…
Juno Spots a Complex Storm on Jupiter
Some storms on Jupiter are quite complex. The swirling storm was captured late last month by the NASA's robotic Juno spacecraft currently orbiting the Solar System's largest…
Hurricane Season Animated
Where do hurricanes go? To better understand dangerous storms, NASA compiled data from several satellites into a supercomputer simulation of this past year's hurricane season.…
Our Story in One Minute
Do you have a minute -- to see the entire backstory of human existence? This thrilling video culls together multiple teasing video snippets in an attempt to succinctly summarize…
Crossing Horizons
Follow this vertical panoramic view from horizon to horizon and your gaze will sweep through the zenith of a dark night sky over Pic du Midi mountaintop observatory. To make the…
Apollo 17 at Shorty Crater
In December of 1972, Apollo 17 astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent about 75 hours on the Moon in the Taurus-Littrow valley, while colleague Ronald Evans orbited…
Alnitak, Alnilam, Mintaka
Alnitak , Alnilam , and Mintaka , are the bright bluish stars from east to west (lower right to upper left) along the diagonal in this cosmic vista . Otherwise known as the Belt…
'Oumuamua: Interstellar Asteroid
Nothing like it has ever been seen before. The unusual space rock 'Oumuamua is so intriguing mainly because it is the first asteroid ever detected from outside our Solar System --…
Viewing discoveries from 15 December 2017 through 22 November 2017.