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.
Video: Comet Leonard over One Hour
Which direction is this comet heading? Judging by the tail, one might imagine that Comet Leonard) is traveling towards the bottom right, but a full 3D analysis shows it traveling…
Rigel and the Witch Head Nebula
By starlight this eerie visage shines in the dark, a crooked profile evoking its popular name, the Witch Head Nebula . In fact, this entrancing telescopic portrait gives the…
Saturn, Tethys, Rings, and Shadows
Seen from ice moon Tethys , rings and shadows would display fantastic views of the Saturnian system. Haven't dropped in on Tethys lately? Then this gorgeous ringscape from the…
The Full Moon and the Dancer
On Monday, January's Full Moon rose as the Sun set. Spotted near the eastern horizon, its warm hues are seen in this photo taken near Cagliari, capital city of the Italian island…
Young Star Jet MHO 2147
Laser guide stars and adaptive optics sharpened this stunning ground-based image of stellar jets from the Gemini South Observatory , Chilean Andes, planet Earth. These twin…
NGC 7822 in Cepheus
Hot, young stars and cosmic pillars of gas and dust seem to crowd into NGC 7822. At the edge of a giant molecular cloud toward the northern constellation Cepheus, the glowing star…
M31: The Andromeda Galaxy
The most distant object easily visible to the unaided eye is M31 , the great Andromeda Galaxy . Even at some two and a half million light-year s distant, this immense spiral…
From Orion to the Southern Cross
This is a sky filled with glowing icons. On the far left is the familiar constellation of Orion , divided by its iconic three-aligned belt stars and featuring the famous Orion…
Chamaeleon Dark Nebulas
Sometimes the dark dust of interstellar space has an angular elegance. Such is the case toward the far-south constellation of Chamaeleon . Normally too faint to see , dark dust is…
A Retreating Thunderstorm at Sunset
What type of cloud is that? This retreating cumulonimbus cloud , more commonly called a thundercloud, is somewhat unusual as it contains the unusual bumpiness of a mammatus cloud…
Galileo's Europa
Looping through the Jovian system in the late 1990s, the Galileo spacecraft recorded stunning views of Europa and uncovered evidence that the moon's icy surface likely hides a…
NGC 1566: The Spanish Dancer Spiral Galaxy
An island universe of billions of stars, NGC 1566 lies about 60 million light-years away in the southern constellation Dorado . Popularly known as the Spanish Dancer galaxy, it's…
Supernova Remnant Simeis 147
It's easy to get lost following the intricate, looping, twisting filaments in this detailed image of supernova remnant Simeis 147. Also cataloged as Sharpless 2-240 it goes by the…
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…
Viewing discoveries from 25 January 2022 through 2 January 2022.