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.
Mars Methane Mystery Deepens
The methane mystery on Mars just got stranger. New results from ESA and Roscosmos' ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, has unexpectedly not detected methane in the atmosphere of Mars. This…
Spiral Aurora over Icelandic Divide
Admire the beauty but fear the beast. The beauty is the aurora overhead , here taking the form of great green spiral , seen between picturesque clouds with the bright Moon to the…
Falcon Heavy Launch Close Up
Twenty seven Merlin rocket engines are firing in this close-up of the launch of a Falcon Heavy rocket. Derived from three Falcon 9 first stage rockets with nine Merlin rocket…
Milky Way in Northern Spring
A postcard from planet Earth , this springtime night skyscape looks over Alandan lake in the Alborz mountains. Taken after local midnight on April 17, the central Milky Way is…
The Leo Trio
This group is popular in the northern spring. Famous as the Leo Triplet , the three magnificent galaxies gather in one field of view. Crowd pleasers when imaged with even modest…
Messier 81
One of the brightest galaxies in planet Earth's sky is similar in size to our Milky Way Galaxy: big, beautiful Messier 81 . Also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's galaxy for its 18th…
In the Vicinity of the Cone Nebula
Strange shapes and textures can be found in neighborhood of the Cone Nebula . The unusual shapes originate from fine interstellar dust reacting in complex ways with the energetic…
Enhanced: The Dolphin Cloud on Jupiter
Do you see the dolphin-shaped cloud on Jupiter? The cloud was visible last year during perijove 16 , the sixteenth time that NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno passed near Jupiter…
Simulation: Two Black Holes Merge
Sit back and watch two black holes merge. Inspired by the first direct detection of gravitational waves in 2015, this simulation video plays in slow motion but would take about…
Rigil Kentaurus and Sandqvist 169
Rigil Kentaurus is the bright star near the top of this broad southern skyscape. Of course it's probably better known as Alpha Centauri , nearest star system to the Sun. Below it…
A Cosmic Rose: The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros
The Rosette Nebula, NGC 2237, is not the only cosmic cloud of gas and dust to evoke the imagery of flowers , but it is the most famous. At the edge of a large molecular cloud in…
First Horizon-Scale Image of a Black Hole
What does a black hole look like? To find out, radio telescopes from around the Earth coordinated observations of black holes with the largest known event horizon s on the sky.…
Martian Moon Phobos Crosses the Sun
What's that passing in front of the Sun? It looks like a moon, but it can't be Earth's Moon, because it isn't round. It's the Martian moon Phobos. The featured video was taken…
Moon Occults Saturn
Sometimes Saturn disappears. It doesn't really go away, though, it just disappears from view when our Moon moves in front . Such a Saturnian eclipse was visible along a small…
AZURE Vapor Tracers over Norway
What's happening in the sky? The atmosphere over northern Norway appeared quite strange for about 30 minutes last Friday when colorful clouds, dots, and plumes suddenly appeared.…
A Scorpius Sky Spectacular
If Scorpius looked this good to the unaided eye, humans might remember it better. Scorpius more typically appears as a few bright stars in a well-known but rarely pointed out…
ISS from Wallasey
After sunset on March 28 , the International Space Station climbed above the western horizon, as seen from Wallasey, England at the mouth of the River Mersey. Still glinting in…
Pan-STARRS Across the Sky
This astronomical sky spanning view is a mosaic from the Pan-STARRS observatory. The images were recorded with its 1.8 meter telescope at the summit of Haleakala on planet Earth's…
Messier 2
After the Crab Nebula , M1, this giant star cluster is the second entry in 18th century astronomer Charles Messier's famous list of things that are not comets. M2 is one of the…
Wisps Surrounding the Horsehead Nebula
The famous Horsehead Nebula in Orion is not alone. A deep exposure shows that the dark familiar shaped indentation, visible just below center, is part of a vast complex of…
Space Station Silhouette on the Moon
What's that unusual spot on the Moon? It's the International Space Station . Using precise timing, the Earth-orbiting space platform was photographed in front of a partially lit…
Astronaut Kicks Lunar Field Goal
Score three points for NASA. With time running out late in Apollo 15 's mission to the Moon in 1971, Astronaut David Scott prepared to split the uprights and bring about yet…
Markarian's Chain of Galaxies
Across the heart of the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies lies a striking string of galaxies known as Markarian's Chain . The chain, pictured here , is highlighted on the right with two…
3D 67P
Put on your red/cyan glasses and float next to the jagged and double-lobed nucleus of Churyumov-Gerasimenko, also known as Comet 67P . The stereo anaglyph was created by combining…
Viewing discoveries from 22 April 2019 through 30 March 2019.