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.
Aurora over Clouds
Auroras usually occur high above the clouds. The auroral glow is created when fast-moving particles ejected from the Sun impact the Earth's magnetosphere , from which charged…
Lunar Dust and Duct Tape
Why is the Moon so dusty? On Earth, rocks are weathered by wind and water, creating soil and sand. On the Moon, the history of constant micrometeorite bombardment has blasted away…
Total Lunar Eclipse from Sydney
The reddened shadow of planet Earth plays across the lunar disk in this telescopic image taken on May 26 near Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. On that crisp, clear autumn night…
Mid-Eclipse and Milky Way
May's perigee Full Moon slid through Earth's shadow yesterday entertaining night skygazers in regions around the Pacific . Seen from western North America, it sinks toward the…
The Outburst Clouds of Star AG Car
What created these unusual clouds? At the center of this 2021 Hubble image , processed by Judy Schmidt, sits AG Carinae , a supergiant star located about 20,000 light-years away…
The Moon During a Total Lunar Eclipse
How does the Moon's appearance change during a total lunar eclipse? The featured time-lapse video was digitally processed to keep the Moon bright and centered during the 5-hour…
Lightning Eclipse from the Planet of the Goats
Thunderstorms almost spoiled this view of the spectacular 2011 June 15 total lunar eclipse . Instead, storm clouds parted for 10 minutes during the total eclipse phase and…
The Galaxy Tree
First came the trees. In the town of Salamanca , Spain , the photographer noticed how distinctive a grove of oak trees looked after being pruned . Next came the galaxy. The…
Markarian's Chain
Near the heart of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster the string of galaxies known as Markarian's Chain stretches across this deep telescopic field of view . Anchored in the frame at bottom…
Utopia on Mars
Expansive Utopia Planitia on Mars is strewn with rocks and boulders in this 1976 image. Constructed from the Viking 2 lander's color and black and white image data, the scene…
M13: The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules
In 1716 , English astronomer Edmond Halley noted, “This is but a little Patch, but it shews itself to the naked Eye, when the Sky is serene and the Moon absent.” Of course, M13 is…
The Jellyfish and Mars
Normally faint and elusive, the Jellyfish Nebula is caught in this alluring scene. In the telescopic field of view two bright yellowish stars, Mu and Eta Geminorum, stand just…
Jets from the Necklace Nebula
What celestial body wears the Necklace Nebula? First, analyses indicate that the Necklace is a planetary nebula , a gas cloud emitted by a star toward the end of its life. Also,…
NGC 4565: Galaxy on Edge
Is our Milky Way Galaxy this thin? Magnificent spiral galaxy NGC 4565 is viewed edge-on from planet Earth. Also known as the Needle Galaxy for its narrow profile, bright NGC 4565…
NGC 602 and Beyond
The clouds may look like an oyster, and the stars like pearls, but look beyond. Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud , a satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years…
The Southern Cliff in the Lagoon
Undulating bright ridges and dusty clouds cross this close-up of the nearby star forming region M8 , also known as the Lagoon Nebula . A sharp, false-color composite of narrow…
M104: The Sombrero Galaxy
A gorgeous spiral galaxy, M104 is famous for its nearly edge-on profile featuring a broad ring of obscuring dust lanes. Seen in silhouette against an extensive central bulge of…
The Comet, the Whale, and the Hockey Stick
Closest to the Sun on March 1, and closest to planet Earth on April 23, this Comet ATLAS (C/2020 R4) shows a faint greenish coma and short tail in this pretty, telescopic field of…
A Meteor and the Gegenschein
Is the night sky darkest in the direction opposite the Sun? No. In fact, a rarely discernable faint glow known as the gegenschein (German for “counter glow”) can be seen 180…
Lightning and Orion Beyond Uluru
What's happening behind Uluru? A United Nations World Heritage Site , Uluru is an extraordinary 350-meter high mountain in central Australia that rises sharply from nearly flat…
Star Clusters M35 and NGC 2158
Clusters of stars can be near or far, young or old, diffuse or compact. The featured image shows two quite contrasting open star clusters in the same field. M35 , on the lower…
Horsehead and Orion Nebulas
The dark Horsehead Nebula and the glowing Orion Nebula are contrasting cosmic vistas. Adrift 1,500 light-years away in one of the night sky's most recognizable constellations ,…
Deepscape at Yacoraite
In this evocative night scene a dusty central Milky Way rises over the ancient Andean archaeological site of Yacoraite in northwestern Argentina. The denizens of planet Earth…
Mercury-Redstone 3 Launch
Sixty years ago, near the dawn of the space age , NASA controllers “lit the candle” and sent Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard arcing into space atop a Redstone rocket. His cramped…
Viewing discoveries from 30 May 2021 through 7 May 2021.