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.
Planets of the Solar System: Tilts and Spins
How does your favorite planet spin? Does it spin rapidly around a nearly vertical axis, or horizontally, or backwards? The featured video animates NASA images of all eight planets…
Perijove 11: Passing Jupiter
Here comes Jupiter! NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno is continuing on its highly-elongated orbits around our Solar System's largest planet. The featured video is from perijove 11 in…
Earth's Recent Climate Spiral
Is our Earth warming? Compared to the past 250 million years, the Earth is currently enduring a relative cold spell, possibly about four degrees Celsius below average. Over the…
4000 Exoplanets
Over 4000 planets are now known to exist outside our Solar System. Known as exoplanets, this milestone was passed last month, as recorded by NASA's Exoplanet Archive. The featured…
Leaving Earth
What it would look like to leave planet Earth? Such an event was recorded visually in great detail by the MESSENGER spacecraft as it swung back past the Earth in 2005 on its way…
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.…
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Game: Super Planet Crash
Can you create a planetary system that lasts for 1000 years? Super Planet Crash, the featured game, allows you to try. To create up to ten planets, just click anywhere near the…
Simulation TNG50: A Galaxy Cluster Forms
How do clusters of galaxies form? Since our universe moves too slowly to watch, faster-moving computer simulations are created to help find out. A recent effort is TNG50 from…
A Martian Eclipse: Phobos Crosses the Sun
What's that passing in front of the Sun? It looks like a moon, but it can't be Earth's Moon, because it isn't round. It's the Martian moon Phobos. The featured video was taken…
Animation: Odd Radio Circles
What do you call a cosmic puzzle that no one expected to see? In this case, Odd Radio Circles, aka ORCs. ORC-1 typifies the enigmatic five objects, only visible at radio…
Eiffel Tower Prominence on the Sun
What's that on the Sun? Although it may look like a flowing version of the Eiffel Tower, it is a solar prominence that is actually much bigger -- about the height of Jupiter. The…
Eta Car: 3D Model of the Most Dangerous Star Known
What's the most dangerous star near earth? Many believe it's Eta Carinae, a binary star system about 100 times the mass of the Sun, just 10,000 light years from earth. Eta Carinae…
Moon Phases 2022
What will the Moon phase be on your birthday this year? It is hard to predict because the Moon's appearance changes nightly. As the Moon orbits the Earth, the half illuminated by…
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…
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…
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…
In Motion: Uranus and Moons
What's that moving across the sky? A planet just a bit too faint to see with the unaided eye: Uranus. The gas giant out past Saturn was tracked earlier this month near opposition…
Video of a Green Flash
Many think it is just a myth. Others think it is true but its cause isn't known. Adventurers pride themselves on having seen it. It's a green flash from the Sun. The truth is the…
A Filament Leaps from the Sun
Why, sometimes, does part of the Sun's atmosphere leap into space? The reason lies in changing magnetic fields that thread through the Sun's surface. Regions of strong surface…
Jupiter Rotates
Observe the graceful twirl of our Solar System's largest planet. Many interesting features of Jupiter's enigmatic atmosphere, including dark belts and light zones, can be followed…
Juno Flyby of Ganymede and Jupiter
What would it be like to fly over the largest moon in the Solar System? In June, the robotic Juno spacecraft flew past Jupiter's huge moon Ganymede) and took images that have been…
Full Moon Silhouettes
Have you ever watched the Moon rise? The slow rise of a nearly full moon over a clear horizon can be an impressive sight. One impressive moonrise was imaged in early 2013 over…
Gigantic Jet Lightning from Puerto Rico
Have you ever seen a gigantic jet? They are extremely rare but tremendously powerful. Gigantic jets are a type of lightning discharge documented only this century that occur…
Night of the Perseids
Have you ever experienced a meteor shower? To help capture the wonder, a video was taken during the peak of the recent Perseid meteor shower above the Indian Astronomical…
Viewing discoveries from 11 September 2022 through 28 September 2021.