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.
Colorful Airglow Bands Surround Milky Way
Why would the sky glow like a giant repeating rainbow? Airglow . Now air glows all of the time, but it is usually hard to see. A disturbance however -- like an approaching storm…
Clouds, Birds, Moon, Venus
Sometimes the sky above can become quite a show. In early September of 2010, for example, the Moon and Venus converged , creating quite a sight by itself for sky enthusiasts…
Southwest Mare Fecunditatis
Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders journeyed from Earth to the Moon and back again in December of 1968. From lunar orbit , their view of craters in southwest Mare…
Alborz Mountain Star Trails
Colourful star trails arc through the night in this wide-angle mountain and skyscape. From a rotating planet , the digitally added consecutive exposures were made with a camera…
The Lunar X (V)
The striking X in this lunarscape is easily visible in binoculars or a small telescope, but not too many have seen it. The catch is, this lunar X is fleeting and only apparent in…
NGC 613 in Dust, Stars, and a Supernova
Where did that spot come from? Amateur astronomer Victor Buso was testing out a new camera on his telescope in 2016 when he noticed a curious spot of light appear -- and remain.…
Dueling Bands in the Night
What are these two bands in the sky? The more commonly seen band is the one on the right and is the central band of our Milky Way galaxy . Our Sun orbits in the disk of this…
AE Aurigae and the Flaming Star Nebula
Why is AE Aurigae called the flaming star? For one reason, the surrounding nebula IC 405 is named the Flaming Star Nebula because the region seems to harbor smoke, even though…
Facing NGC 6946
From our vantage point in the Milky Way Galaxy , we see NGC 6946 face-on . The big, beautiful spiral galaxy is located just 20 million light-years away, behind a veil of…
Apollo 17: A Stereo View from Lunar Orbit
Get out your red/blue glasses and check out this awesome stereo view of another world. The scene was recorded by Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene Cernan on December 11, 1972,…
When Roses Aren't Red
Not all roses are red of course , but they can still be very pretty. Likewise, the beautiful Rosette Nebula and other star forming regions are often shown in astronomical images…
Jupiter in Infrared from Hubble
Jupiter looks a bit different in infrared light. To better understand Jupiter 's cloud motions and to help NASA's robotic Juno spacecraft understand the planetary context of the…
A Partial Solar Eclipse over Buenos Aires
What's happened to top of the Sun? Last week, parts of Earth's southern hemisphere were treated to a partial solar eclipse , where the Moon blocks out part of the Sun . The…
LL Ori and the Orion Nebula
Stars can make waves in the Orion Nebula's sea of gas and dust. This esthetic close-up of cosmic clouds and stellar winds features LL Orionis , interacting with the Orion Nebula…
Manhattan Skylines
City lights shine along the upper east side of Manahattan in this dramatic urban night skyscape from February 13. Composed from a series of digital exposures, the monochrome image…
Comet PanSTARRS is near the Edge
The comet PanSTARRS also known as the blue comet (C/2016 R2) really is near the lower left edge of this stunning, wide field view recorded on January 13. Spanning nearly 20…
Enceladus in Silhouette
One of our Solar System's most tantalizing worlds, Enceladus is backlit by the Sun in this Cassini spacecraft image from November 1, 2009. The dramatic illumination reveals the…
In the Heart of the Heart Nebula
What's that inside the Heart Nebula? First, the large emission nebula dubbed IC 1805 looks, in whole, like a human heart . It's shape perhaps fitting of the Valentine's Day , this…
Car Orbiting Earth
Last week, a car orbited the Earth. The car, created by humans and robots on the Earth, was launched by the SpaceX Company to demonstrate the ability of its Falcon Heavy Rocket to…
Blue Comet Meets Blue Stars
What's that heading for the Pleiades star cluster? It appears to be Comet C/2016 R2 (PanSTARRS) , but here, appearances are deceiving. On the right and far in the background , the…
A Partial Eclipse Over Manila Bay
What's happened to the setting Sun? An eclipse! In early 2009, the Moon eclipsed part of the Sun as visible from parts of Africa, Australia, and Asia . In particular the featured…
Roadster, Starman, Planet Earth
Don't panic . It's just a spacesuited mannequin named Starman . As the sunlit crescent of planet Earth recedes in the background, Starman is comfortably seated at the wheel of a…
Total Solar Lunar Eclipse
This digitally processed and composited picture creatively compares two famous eclipses in one; the total lunar eclipse (left) of January 31 , and the total solar eclipse of…
Bow Tie Moon and Star Trails
On January 31 , a leisurely lunar eclipse was enjoyed from all over the night side of planet Earth, the first of three consecutive total eclipses of the Moon . This dramatic…
Viewing discoveries from 6 March 2018 through 8 February 2018.