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.
Earthrise: A Video Reconstruction
About 12 seconds into this video, something unusual happens. The Earth begins to rise. Never seen by humans before, the rise of the Earth over the limb of the Moon occurred 50…
A Cold December Night
They say Orion always comes up sideways , and he does seem to on this cold December night. The bright stars of the familiar northern winter constellation lie just above the snowy…
Extraordinary Solar Halos
Welcome to the December Solstice, the first day of winter in planet Earth's northern hemisphere and summer in the south. To celebrate, consider this extraordinary display of…
Red Nebula, Green Comet, Blue Stars
This festively colored skyscape was captured in the early morning hours of December 17, following Comet Wirtanen's closest approach to planet Earth . The comet was just visible to…
A Rainbow Geminid Meteor
Meteors can be colorful. While the human eye usually cannot discern many colors, cameras often can. Pictured is a Geminid captured by camera during last week's meteor shower that…
Methane Bubbles Frozen in Lake Baikal
What are these bubbles frozen into Lake Baikal? Methane . Lake Baikal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Russia , is the world's largest (by volume), oldest, and deepest lake,…
M31: The Andromeda Galaxy
What is the nearest major galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy ? Andromeda. In fact, our Galaxy is thought to look much like Andromeda . Together these two galaxies dominate the…
Comet Wirtanen Passes by the Earth
Today Comet Wirtanen passes by the Earth. The kilometer-sized dirty snowball orbits the Sun every 5.4 years, ranging as far out as Jupiter and as close in as the Earth . Today…
Geminids and Friends
From a radiant in the constellation of the Twins, the annual Geminid meteor shower rained down on our fair planet this week. This beautiful skyscape collects about 70 of Gemini's…
Swimming on Jupiter
On October 29, the Juno spacecraft once again dove near the turbulent Jovian cloud tops. Its 16th orbital closest approach or perijove passage , brought Juno within 3,500…
3D Bennu
Put on your red/blue glasses and float next to asteroid 101955 Bennu . Shaped like a spinning top toy with boulders littering its rough surface, the tiny Solar System world is…
M43: Orion Falls
Is there a waterfall in Orion? No, but some of the dust in M43 appears similar to a waterfall on Earth. M43 , part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex , is the often imaged but…
Arp 188 and the Tadpole's Tail
Why does this galaxy have such a long tail ? In this stunning vista, based on image data from the Hubble Legacy Archive, distant galaxies form a dramatic backdrop for disrupted…
Sound and Light Captured by Mars InSight
Your arm on Mars has unusual powers. For one thing it is nearly 2 meters long, has a scoop and grapple built into its hand, and has a camera built into its forearm. For another,…
Aurora Shimmer, Meteor Flash
Some night skies are serene and passive -- others shimmer and flash. The later, in the form of auroras and meteors, haunted skies over the island of Kvaløya, near Tromsø Norway on…
Tiny Planet Timelapse
You can pack a lot of sky watching into 30 seconds on this tiny planet. Of course, the full spherical image timelapse video was recorded on planet Earth, from Grande Pines…
December's Comet Wirtanen
Coming close in mid-December, Comet 46P Wirtanen hangs in this starry sky over the bell tower of a Romanesque church. In the constructed vertical panorama, a series of digital…
Cetus Galaxies and Supernova
Large spiral galaxy NGC 1055 at top left joins spiral Messier 77 (bottom right) in this cosmic view toward the aquatic constellation Cetus . The narrowed, dusty appearance of…
Highlights of the North Winter Sky
What can you see in the night sky this season? The featured graphic gives a few highlights for Earth 's northern hemisphere. Viewed as a clock face centered at the bottom, early…
Rocket Launch between Mountains
What's happening between those mountains? A rocket is being launched to space . Specifically, a Long March 3B Carrier Rocket was launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in…
Spiraling Supermassive Black Holes
Do black holes glow when they collide? When merging, co-orbiting black holes are sure to emit a burst of unusual gravitational radiation, but will they emit light, well before…
The Fairy of Eagle Nebula
The dust sculptures of the Eagle Nebula are evaporating. As powerful starlight whittles away these cool cosmic mountains , the statuesque pillars that remain might be imagined as…
Mount Everest Star Trails
The highest peak on planet Earth is framed in this mountain and night skyscape. On September 30, the digital stack of 240 sequential exposures made with a camera fixed to a tripod…
A Cold River to Orion
Ice is forming on the river Lielupe as it flows through the landscape in this winter's night scene . Even in motion the frigid water still reflects a starry sky, though. The well…
Viewing discoveries from 23 December 2018 through 30 November 2018.