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 Panorama 360 from Curiosity
Which way up Mount Sharp ? In early September, the robotic rover Curiosity continued its ascent up the central peak of Gale Crater , searching for more clues about ancient water…
Night Sky Reflected
What's that in the mirror? In the featured image of the dark southern sky , the three brightest galaxies of the night are all relatively easy to identify. Starting from the left,…
A Spiral Aurora over Iceland
What's happened to the sky? Aurora ! Captured in 2015, this aurora was noted by Iceland ers for its great brightness and quick development. The aurora resulted from a solar storm,…
Saturn at Night
Still bright in planet Earth's night skies, good telescopic views of Saturn and its beautiful rings often make it a star at star parties . But this stunning view of Saturn's rings…
Rosetta's Comet in View
Faint comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P) sweeps past background stars in the constellation Taurus and even fainter distant galaxies in this telescopic frame from September 7. About…
M16 Close Up
A star cluster around 2 million years young surrounded by natal clouds of dust and glowing gas, M16 is also known as The Eagle Nebula. This beautifully detailed image of the…
The Deep Sky Toward Andromeda
What surrounds the Andromeda galaxy? Out in space, Andromeda (M31) is closely surrounded by several small satellite galaxies , and further out it is part of the Local Group of…
NGC 520: Colliding Galaxies from Hubble
Is this one galaxy or two? The jumble of stars, gas, and dust that is NGC 520 is now thought to incorporate the remains of two separate disk galaxies. A defining component of NGC…
Firefly Milky Way over Russia
It started with a pine tree. The idea was to photograph a statuesque pine in front of the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy . And the plan, carried out two months ago, was…
Earth and Moon
The Earth and Moon are rarely photographed together. One of most spectacular times this occurred was about 30 years ago when the Jupiter-bound Galileo spacecraft) zoomed past our…
A Falcon 9 Nebula
Not the Hubble Space Telescope's latest view of a distant galactic nebula, this illuminated cloud of gas and dust dazzled early morning spacecoast skygazers on August 29. The…
NGC 7023: The Iris Nebula
These cosmic clouds have blossomed 1,300 light-years away, in the fertile starfields of the constellation Cepheus . Called the Iris Nebula, NGC 7023 is not the only nebula to…
M51: The Whirlpool Galaxy
Find the Big Dipper and follow the handle away from the dipper's bowl until you get to the last bright star. Then, just slide your telescope a little south and west and you'll…
Dancing Ghosts: Curved Jets from Active Galaxies
Why would galaxies emit jets that look like ghosts? And furthermore, why do they appear to be dancing ? The curled and fluffy jets from the supermassive black holes at the centers…
A Blue Moon in Exaggerated Colors
The Moon is normally seen in subtle shades of grey or gold . But small, measurable color differences have been greatly exaggerated to make this telescopic, multicolored, moonscape…
A Fire Rainbow over West Virginia
What's happening to this cloud? Ice crystals in a distant cirrus cloud are acting like little floating prisms . Known informally as a fire rainbow for its flame-like appearance, a…
Orbits of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids
Are asteroids dangerous? Some are, but the likelihood of a dangerous asteroid striking the Earth during any given year is low. Because some past mass extinction event s have been…
Mars Rock Rochette
Taken on mission sol 180 (August 22) this sharp image from a Hazard Camera on the Perseverance rover looks out across a rock strewn floor of Jezero crater on Mars. At 52.5…
Elephant's Trunk and Caravan
Like an illustration in a galactic Just So Story , the Elephant's Trunk Nebula winds through the emission nebula and young star cluster complex IC 1396 , in the high and far off…
A Blue Hour Full Moon
Nature photographers and other fans of planet Earth always look forward to the blue hour . That's the transition in twilight , just before sunrise or after sunset, when the Sun is…
Solar System Ball Drop
Does a ball drop faster on Earth, Jupiter, or Uranus? The featured animation shows a ball dropping from one kilometer high toward the surfaces of famous solar system bodies,…
PDS 70: Disk, Planets, and Moons
It's not the big disk that's attracting the most attention. Although the big planet-forming disk around the star PDS 70 is clearly imaged and itself quite interesting. It's also…
Abell 3827: Cannibal Cluster Gravitational Lens
Is that one galaxy or three? Toward the right of the featured Hubble image of the massive galaxy cluster Abell 3827 is what appears to be a most unusual galaxy -- curved and with…
Explosions from White Dwarf Star RS Oph
Spectacular explosions keep occurring in the binary star system named RS Ophiuchi . Every 20 years or so, the red giant star dumps enough hydrogen gas onto its companion white…
Viewing discoveries from 14 September 2021 through 22 August 2021.