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.
Tianwen-1 Mission to Mars
On July 23, this Long March 5 heavy-lift rocket rose into a blue morning sky from China's Hainan Island Wenchang Satellite Launch Center. The rocket carried an orbiter, lander,…
MAGIC NEOWISE
The multi-mirror , 17 meter-diameter MAGIC telescopes reflect this starry night sky from the Roque de los Muchachos European Northern Observatory on the Canary Island of La Palma.…
Fairytale NEOWISE
Comet dust falls through a twilight sky in this dream-like scene, but it's not part of a fairytale movie. Still, Castle Neuschwanstein , nestled in the Bavarian Alps, did inspire…
The Structured Tails of Comet NEOWISE
What is creating the structure in Comet NEOWISE's tails? Of the two tails evident, the blue ion tail on the left points directly away from the Sun and is pushed out by the flowing…
Iron in the Butterfly Nebula
Can stars, like caterpillars, transform themselves into butterflies? No, but in the case of the Butterfly Nebula -- it sure looks like it. Though its wingspan covers over 3…
Comet NEOWISE and Nebulae
Would you brave wild animals to photograph this sky? One astrophotographer did -- and we all get to reap the rewards. First, thousands of stars were visible with many of the…
Finding NEOWISE
If you can see the stars of the Big Dipper , you can find comet NEOWISE in your evening sky tonight. After sunset look for the naked-eye comet below the bowl of the famous…
NEOWISE of the North
After local midnight on July 14 comet NEOWISE was still above the horizon for Goldenrod, Alberta, Canada, just north of Calgary, planet Earth. In this snapshot it makes for an…
The Long Tails of Comet NEOWISE
This Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) now sweeps through our fair planet's northern skies . Its long tails stretch across this deep skyview from Suchy Vrch, Czech Republic. Recorded on…
Comet NEOWISE over the Swiss Alps
Comet NEOWISE has been wowing photographers around much of the world during dawn and dusk, at the margins of day and night . For the most north ern residents of planet Earth,…
Comet NEOWISE over Stonehenge
Have you ever seen a comet? Tonight -- and likely the next few nights -- should be a good chance . Go outside just at sunset and look to your northwest. The lower your horizon,…
Comet CG Creates Its Dust Tail
Where do comet tails come from? There are no obvious places on the nuclei of comets from which the jets that create comet tails emanate. One of the best images of emerging jets is…
The Tails of Comet NEOWISE
Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) is now sweeping through northern skies . Its developing tails stretch some six degrees across this telescopic field of view , recorded from Brno, Czech…
Comet NEOWISE from the ISS
Rounding the Sun on July 3rd and currently headed for the outer Solar System , Comet NEOWISE (C/2020 F3) has been growing brighter in the predawn skies of planet Earth. From low…
Noctilucent Clouds and Comet NEOWISE
These silvery blue waves washing over a tree-lined horizon in the eastern French Alps are noctilucent clouds . From high in planet Earth's mesosphere, they reflect sunlight in…
Mercury's Sodium Tail
What is that fuzzy streak extending from Mercury? Long exposures of our Solar System's innermost planet may reveal something unexpected: a tail. Mercury 's thin atmosphere…
Comet NEOWISE over Lebanon
A comet has suddenly become visible to the unaided eye. Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) was discovered in late March and brightened as it reached its closest approach to the Sun, inside…
M43: Dust, Gas, and Stars in the Orion Nebula
Unspeakable beauty and unimaginable bedlam can be found together in the Orion Nebula Arguably the most famous of all astronomy nebulas, the Great Nebula in Orion is an immense…
Saturn's Northern Hexagon
Why would clouds form a hexagon on Saturn? Nobody is sure. Originally discovered during the Voyager flybys of Saturn in the 1980s, nobody has ever seen anything like it anywhere…
Meeting in the Mesosphere
A sensitive video camera on a summit of the Vosges mountains in France captured these surprising fireworks above a distant horizon on June 26. Generated over intense thunderstorms…
Lynds Dark Nebula 1251
Stars are forming in Lynds Dark Nebula ( LDN ) 1251. About 1,000 light-years away and drifting above the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, the dusty molecular cloud is part of a…
The Galaxy, the Planet, and the Apple Tree
The Old Astronomer's Milky Way arcs through this peaceful northern sky. Against faint, diffuse starlight you can follow dark rifts of interstellar dust clouds stretching from the…
Bright Planetary Nebula NGC 7027 from Hubble
What created this unusual planetary nebula? NGC 7027 is one of the smallest, brightest, and most unusually shaped planetary nebula s known. Given its expansion rate, NGC 7027…
Dark Sky Reflections
When the lake calmed down, many wonders of the land and sky appeared twice. Perhaps the most dramatic from the dark sky was the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy , visible as a…
Viewing discoveries from 25 July 2020 through 29 June 2020.