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.
Green Flashes: Sun, Moon, Venus, Mercury
Follow a sunset on a clear day against a distant horizon and you might glimpse green just as the Sun disappears from view. The green flash is caused by refraction of light rays…
Mercury Meets Crescent Venus
That's not a bright star and crescent Moon caught between branches of a eucalyptus tree. It's Venus in a crescent phase and Mercury. Near the western horizon after sunset, the two…
Reflecting the International Space Station
Still bathed in sunlight, the International Space Station arced through the evening sky over lake Wulfsahl-Gusborn in northern Germany, just after sunset on March 25. The familiar…
Earth and Moon through Saturn's Rings
What are those dots between Saturn's rings? Our Earth and Moon . Just over three years ago, because the Sun was temporarily blocked by the body of Saturn, the robotic Cassini…
The Milky Way over Snow-Capped Himalayas
What's higher than the Himalayas? Although the Himalayan Mountains are the tallest on planet Earth, they don't measure up to the Milky Way . Visible above the snow-capped…
Mystic Mountain Monster being Destroyed
Inside the head of this interstellar monster is a star that is slowly destroying it. The huge monster, actually an inanimate series of pillars of gas and dust, measures light…
Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars
The largest canyon in the Solar System cuts a wide swath across the face of Mars . Named Valles Marineris , the grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as…
Ghost Fungus to Magellanic Cloud
Stars shine and satellites glint in this clear, dark, night sky over Wannon Falls Reserve, South West Victoria, Australia. In fact the fuzzy, faint apparition above the tree tops…
South of Carina
With natal dust clouds in silhouette against glowing atomic gas, this colorful and chaotic vista lies within one of the largest star forming regions in the Milky Way galaxy, the…
Phases of Venus
Just as the Moon goes through phases , Venus' visible sunlit hemisphere waxes and wanes. This composite of backyard telescopic images illustrates the steady changes for Venus…
Moon, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Milky Way
It is not a coincidence that planets line up. That's because all of the planets orbit the Sun in (nearly) a single sheet called the plane of the ecliptic . When viewed from inside…
Posters of the Solar System
Would you like a NASA astronomy-exploration poster? You are just one page-print away. Any of the panels you see on the featured image can appear on your wall . Moreover, this NASA…
A Waterspout in Florida
What's happening over the water? Pictured here is one of the better images yet recorded of a waterspout , a type of tornado that occurs over water. Waterspouts are spinning…
The Dark River to Antares
A dark river seems to flow through this sky from the horizon toward colorful clouds near red giant star Antares. Murky looking, the dark river is a dusty nebula obscuring…
Galaxy Wars: M81 and M82
These two galaxies are far far away, 12 million light-years distant toward the northern constellation of the Great Bear. On the left, with grand spiral arms and bright yellow core…
Comet Halley vs Comet SWAN
The pre-dawn hours of May 3rd were moonless as grains of cosmic dust streaked through southern skies above Reunion Island. Swept up as planet Earth plowed through dusty debris…
Jupiter in Infrared from Gemini
In infrared, Jupiter lights up the night. Recently, astronomers at the Gemini North Observatory in Hawaii , USA , created some of the best infrared photos of Jupiter ever taken…
Lyrid Meteors from the Constellation Lyra
Where are all of these meteors coming from? In terms of direction on the sky, the pointed answer is the constellation of Small Harp (Lyra). That is why the famous meteor shower…
Behind Betelgeuse
What's behind Betelgeuse? One of the brighter and more unusual stars in the sky, the red supergiant star Betelgeuse can be found in the direction of famous constellation Orion.…
The Porpoise Galaxy from Hubble
What's happening to this spiral galaxy? Just a few hundred million years ago, NGC 2936, the upper of the two large galaxies shown , was likely a normal spiral galaxy -- spinning,…
Full Flower Moonrise
Rising as the Sun set, the Moon was bright and full in planet Earth skies on May 7 and known to some as a Flower Moon . Near the horizon it does seem to take on rose pink hues of…
Long Tailed Comet SWAN
Blowing in the solar wind the spectacular ion tail of Comet SWAN (C/2020 F8) extends far across this 10 degree wide telephoto field of view. Captured on May 2 its greenish coma…
Analemma of the Moon
An analemma is that figure-8 curve you get when you mark the position of the Sun at the same time each day for one year. But the trick to imaging an analemma of the Moon is to…
LDN 1471: A Windblown Star Cavity
What is the cause of this unusual parabolic structure? This illuminated cavity, known as LDN 1471 , was created by a newly forming star , seen as the bright source at the peak of…
Viewing discoveries from 30 May 2020 through 6 May 2020.