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.
A Beautiful Trifid
The beautiful Trifid Nebula is a cosmic study in contrasts . Also known as M20, it lies about 5,000 light-years away toward the nebula rich constellation Sagittarius. A star…
M13: The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules
In 1716 , English astronomer Edmond Halley noted, “This is but a little Patch, but it shows itself to the naked Eye, when the Sky is serene and the Moon absent.” Of course, M13 is…
Halo of the Cat's Eye
What created the unusual halo around the Cat's Eye nebula? No one is sure. What is sure is that the Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae on the…
A Moon Dressed Like Saturn
Why does Saturn appear so big? It doesn't -- what is pictured are foreground clouds on Earth crossing in front of the Moon . The Moon shows a slight crescent phase with most of…
Mountains of Dust in the Carina Nebula
It's stars versus dust in the Carina Nebula and the stars are winning. More precisely, the energetic light and winds from massive newly formed stars are evaporating and dispersing…
Starburst Galaxy M94 from Hubble
Why does this galaxy have a ring of bright blue stars? Beautiful island universe Messier 94 lies a mere 15 million light-years distant in the northern constellation of the Hunting…
The Eagle Rises
Get out your red/blue glasses and check out this stereo view from lunar orbit. The 3D anaglyph was created from two photographs ( AS11-44-6633 , AS11-44-6634 ) taken by astronaut…
SOFIA's Southern Lights
SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy , is a Boeing 747SP aircraft modified to carry a large reflecting telescope into the stratosphere. The ability of the…
North Celestial Tree
An ancient tree seems to reach out and touch Earth's North Celestial Pole in this well-planned night skyscape. Consecutive exposures for the timelapse composition were recorded…
Crepuscular Moon Rays over Denmark
This moon made quite an entrance. Typically, a moonrise is quiet and serene. Taking a few minutes to fully peek above the horizon, Earth's largest orbital companion can remain…
Comet NEOWISE Rising over the Adriatic Sea
This sight was worth getting out of bed early. Two years ago this month, Comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)) rose before dawn to the delight of northern sky enthusiasts awake that early.…
Find the New Moon
Can you find the Moon? This usually simple task can be quite difficult. Even though the Moon is above your horizon half of the time, its phase can be anything from crescent to…
Saturn in Infrared from Cassini
Many details of Saturn appear clearly in infrared light. Bands of clouds show great structure, including long stretching storms . Also quite striking in infrared is the unusual…
Apollo 11 Landing Panorama
Have you seen a panorama from another world lately? Assembled from high-resolution scans of the original film frames, this one sweeps across the magnificent desolation of the…
Spiral Galaxy M74: A Sharper View
Beautiful spiral galaxy Messier 74 (also known as NGC 628) lies some 32 million light-years away toward the constellation Pisces. An island universe of about 100 billion stars…
Messier 10 and Comet
Imaged on July 15 2022, comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) had a Messier moment , sharing this wide telescopic field of view with globular star cluster Messier 10. Of course M10 was…
Jupiter and Ring in Infrared from Webb
Why does Jupiter have rings? Jupiter's main ring was discovered in 1979 by NASA's passing Voyager 1 spacecraft, but its origin was then a mystery. Data from NASA's Galileo…
Pleiades over Half Dome
Stars come in bunches. The most famous bunch of stars on the sky is the Pleiades , a bright cluster that can be easily seen with the unaided eye . The Pleiades lies only about 450…
Stephan's Quintet from Webb, Hubble, and Subaru
OK, but why can't you combine images from Webb and Hubble? You can, and today's featured image shows one impressive result. Although the recently launched James Webb Space…
Europa and Jupiter from Voyager 1
What are those spots on Jupiter? Largest and furthest, just right of center, is the Great Red Spot -- a huge storm system that has been raging on Jupiter possibly since Giovanni…
Tycho and Clavius at Dawn
South is up in this dramatic telescopic view of the lunar terminator and the Moon's rugged southern highlands. The lunar landscape was captured on July 7 with the moon at its…
Lubovna Full Moon
On July 13 this well-planned telephoto view recorded a Full Moon rising over Lubovna Castle in eastern Slovakia . The photographer was about 3 kilometers from the castle walls and…
Webb's Southern Ring Nebula
Cataloged as NGC 3132 the Southern Ring Nebula is a planetary nebula , the death shroud of a dying sun-like star some 2,500 light-years from Earth. Composed of gas and dust the…
Webb's First Deep Field
This is the deepest , sharpest infrared image of the cosmos so far. The view of the early Universe toward the southern constellation Volans was achieved in 12.5 hours of exposure…
Viewing discoveries from 5 August 2022 through 13 July 2022.