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.
Comet Leonard Closeup from Australia
What does Comet Leonard look like up close? Although we can't go there, imaging the comet's coma and inner tails through a small telescope gives us a good idea. As the name…
Orion's Belt Region in Gas and Dust
You may have seen Orion's belt before -- but not like this. The three bright stars across this image are, from left to right, Mintaka , Alnilam , and Alnitak : the iconic belt…
Comet Leonard's Tail Wag
Why does Comet Leonard's tail wag? The featured time-lapse video shows the ion tail of Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard)) as it changed over ten days early last month. The video was taken…
Hubble's Jupiter and the Shrinking Great Red Spot
What will become of Jupiter's Great Red Spot? Gas giant Jupiter is the solar system's largest world with about 320 times the mass of planet Earth . Jupiter is home to one of the…
Quadrantids of the North
Named for a forgotten constellation , the Quadrantid Meteor Shower puts on an annual show for planet Earth's northern hemisphere skygazers. The shower's radiant on the sky lies…
Ecstatic Solar Eclipse
A male Adelie penguin performed this Ecstatic Vocalization in silhouette during the December 4 solar eclipse , the final eclipse of 2021. Of course his Ecstatic Vocalization is a…
The Last Days of Venus as the Evening Star
That's not a young crescent Moon posing behind cathedral towers after sunset. It's Venus in a crescent phase. About 40 million kilometers away and about 2 percent illuminated by…
A Year of Sunrises
Does the Sun always rise in the same direction? No. As the months change, the direction toward the rising Sun changes, too. The featured image shows the direction of sunrise every…
Moons Beyond Rings at Saturn
What's happened to that moon of Saturn? Nothing -- Saturn's moon Rhea is just partly hidden behind Saturn's rings. In 2010, the robotic Cassini spacecraft then orbiting Saturn…
Comet Leonard's Long Tail
You couldn't see Comet Leonard's extremely long tail with a telescope — it was just too long. You also couldn't see it with binoculars — still too long. Or with your eyes -- it…
Quadruple Lunar Halo Over Winter Road
Sometimes falling ice crystals make the atmosphere into a giant lens causing arcs and halos to appear around the Sun or Moon. One Saturday night in 2012 was just such a time near…
The Full Moon of 2021
Every Full Moon of 2021 shines in this year-spanning astrophoto project, a composite portrait of the familiar lunar nearside at each brightest lunar phase . Arranged by moonth ,…
JWST on the Road to L2
This timelapse gif tracks the James Webb Space Telescope as it streaks across the stars of Orion on its journey to a destination beyond the Moon. Recorded on December 28, 12…
The Further Tail of Comet Leonard
Comet Leonard , brightest comet of 2021, is at the lower left of these two panels captured on December 29 in dark Atacama desert skies. Heading for its perihelion on January 3…
Giant Storms and High Clouds on Jupiter
What and where are these large ovals? They are rotating storm clouds on Jupiter imaged last month by NASA's Juno spacecraft . In general, higher clouds are lighter in color, and…
Sun Halo over Sweden
What's happened to the Sun? Sometimes it looks like the Sun is being viewed through a giant lens). In the featured video, however, there are actually millions of tiny lenses: ice…
Comet Leonard behind JWST Launch Plume
Which one of these two streaks is a comet? Although they both have comet-like features, the lower streak is the only real comet. This lower streak shows the coma and tail of Comet…
James Webb Space Telescope over Earth
There's a big new telescope in space. This one, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), not only has a mirror over five times larger than Hubble 's in area, but can see better in…
The Tail of a Christmas Comet
The tail of a comet streams across this three degree wide telescopic field of view captured under dark Namibian skies on December 21. In outburst only a few days ago and just…
M1: The Crab Nebula
The Crab Nebula is cataloged as M1, the first object on Charles Messier's famous 18th century list of things which are not comets. In fact, the Crab is now known to be a supernova…
Three Planets and a Comet
Are you still looking for that perfect holiday gift for an astronomer? If your night sky is dark and horizon clear enough, the Solar System may have done your shopping for you.…
Launch of the IXPE Observatory
Birds don't fly this high. Airplanes don't go this fast. The Statue of Liberty weighs less. No species other than human can even comprehend what is going on , nor could any human…
Solstice Sun and Milky Way
Welcome to December's solstice, first day of winter in the north and summer for the southern hemisphere. Astronomical markers of the seasons, solstice and equinox dates are based…
The Comet and the Fireball
This picture was supposed to feature a comet. Specifically, a series of images of the brightest comet of 2021 were being captured: Comet Leonard . But the universe had other…
Viewing discoveries from 12 January 2022 through 20 December 2021.