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.
Perseverance Takes a Spin
After arriving at Jezero Crater on Mars, Perseverance went for a spin on March 4. This sharp image from the car-sized rover's Navcam shows tracks left by its six wheels in the…
A Little Like Mars
The surface of this planet looks a little like Mars . It's really planet Earth though . In a digitally stitched little planet projection, the 360 degree mosaic was captured near…
Mars in Taurus
You can spot Mars in the evening sky tonight. Now home to the Perseverance rover , the Red Planet is presently wandering through the constellation Taurus, close on the sky to the…
Stars over an Erupting Volcano
Mt. Etna has been erupting for hundreds of thousands of years. Located in Sicily , Italy , the volcano produces lava fountains over one kilometer high. Mt. Etna is not only one of…
Ingenuity: A Mini-Helicopter Now on Mars
What if you could fly around Mars? NASA may have achieved that capability last month with the landing of Perseverance , a rover which included a small flight-worthy companion…
The Pelican Nebula in Red and Blue
The Pelican Nebula is changing. The entire nebula, officially designated IC 5070, is divided from the larger North America Nebula by a molecular cloud filled with dark dust . The…
The Aurora Tree
Yes, but can your tree do this? Pictured is a visual coincidence between the dark branches of a nearby tree and bright glow of a distant aurora. The beauty of the aurora --…
Perseverance Landing Site from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Seen from orbit a day after a dramatic arrival on the martian surface, the Perseverance landing site is identified in this high-resolution view from the Mars Reconnaissance…
Mars Perseverance Sol 3
Stitched together on planet Earth , 142 separate images make up this 360 degree panorama from the floor of Jezero Crater on Mars. The high-resolution color images were taken by…
A Venus Flyby
On a mission to explore the inner heliosphere and solar corona, on July 11, 2020 the Wide-field Imager on board NASA's Parker Solar Probe captured this stunning view of the…
Spiral Galaxy M66 from Hubble
It's always nice to get a new view of an old friend. This stunning Hubble Space Telescope image of nearby spiral galaxy M66 is just that. A spiral galaxy with a small central bar,…
Video: Perseverance Landing on Mars
What would it look like to land on Mars? To better monitor the instruments involved in the Entry, Decent, and Landing of the Perseverance Rover on Mars last week, cameras with…
Moon Rising Between Starships
What's that on either side of the Moon? Starships . Specifically, they are launch-and-return reusable rockets being developed by SpaceX to lift cargo and eventually humans from…
NGC 2244: A Star Cluster in the Rosette Nebula
In the heart of the Rosette Nebula lies a bright open cluster of stars that lights up the nebula. The stars of NGC 2244 formed from the surrounding gas only a few million years…
Perseverance: How to Land on Mars
Slung beneath its rocket powered descent stage Perseverance hangs only a few meters above the martian surface, captured here moments before its February 18 touchdown on the Red…
Mars Perseverance Sol 0
After a 203 day interplanetary voyage, and seven minutes of terror, Perseverance has landed on Mars . Confirmation of the successful landing at Jezero crater was announced from…
Swiss Alps, Martian Sky
Taken on February 6 , this snowy mountain and skyscape was captured near Melchsee-Frutt, central Switzerland, planet Earth. The reddish daylight and blue tinted glow around the…
Sun Pillar with Upper Tangent Arc
This was not a typical sun pillar. Just after sunrise two weeks ago in Providence , Rhode Island , USA , a photographer, looking out his window, was suddenly awestruck. The…
Perseverance: Seven Minutes to Mars
How hard is it to land safely on Mars? So hard that many more attempts have failed than succeeded. The next attempt will be on Thursday. The main problem is that the Martian…
Landing on Mars: Seven Minutes of Terror
Starting Thursday, there may be an amazing new robotic explorer on Mars. Or there may be a new pile of junk. It all likely depends on things going correctly in the minutes after…
Long Stem Rosette Nebula
Would the Rosette Nebula by any other name look as sweet? The bland New General Catalog designation of NGC 2237 doesn't appear to diminish the appearance of this flowery emission…
Stereo Eros
Get out your red/blue glasses and float next to asteroid 433 Eros . Orbiting the Sun once every 1.8 years, the near-Earth asteroid is named for the Greek god of love. Still, its…
Spiral Galaxy NGC 1350
This gorgeous island universe lies about 85 million light-years distant in the southern constellation Fornax . Inhabited by young blue star clusters, the tightly wound spiral arms…
Cygnus Mosaic 2010 - 2020
In brush strokes of interstellar dust and glowing gas, this beautiful skyscape is painted across the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy near the northern end of the Great Rift and the…
Viewing discoveries from 6 March 2021 through 11 February 2021.