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.
Jupiter and Venus over Italy
What are those two bright spots? Planets. A few days ago, the two brightest planets in the night sky passed within a single degree of each other in what is termed a conjunction .…
10 Days of Venus and Jupiter
Venus and Jupiter may have caught your attention lately. The impending close conjunction of the two brightest planets visible in clear evening skies has been hard to miss . With…
RCW 86: Historical Supernova Remnant
In 185 AD, Chinese astronomers recorded the appearance of a new star in the Nanmen asterism. That part of the sky is identified with Alpha and Beta Centauri on modern star charts.…
Unraveling NGC 3169
Spiral galaxy NGC 3169 looks to be unraveling like a ball of cosmic yarn. It lies some 70 million light-years away, south of bright star Regulus toward the faint constellation…
The Flaming Star Nebula
Is star AE Aurigae on fire? No. Even though AE Aurigae is named the Flaming Star and the surrounding nebula IC 405 is named the Flaming Star Nebula , and even though the nebula…
Crescent Moon Beyond Greek Temple
Why is a thin crescent moon never seen far from a horizon? Because the only geometry that gives a thin crescent lunar phase occurs when the Moon appears close to the Sun in the…
Zodiacal Ray with Venus and Jupiter
What's causing that unusual ray of light extending from the horizon? Dust orbiting the Sun. At certain times of the year, a band of sun-reflecting dust from the inner Solar System…
Saturn's Iapetus: Moon with a Strange Surface
What would make a moon look like a walnut? A strange ridge that circles Saturn 's moon Iapetus 's equator, visible near the bottom of the featured image , makes it appear similar…
Crescent Moon Occultation
On February 22, a young Moon shared the western sky at sunset with bright planets Venus and Jupiter along the ecliptic plane . The beautiful celestial conjunction was visible…
Jones-Emberson 1
Planetary nebula Jones-Emberson 1 is the death shroud of a dying Sun-like star. It lies some 1,600 light-years from Earth toward the sharp-eyed constellation Lynx . About 4…
Arp 78: Peculiar Galaxy in Aries
Peculiar spiral galaxy Arp 78 is found within the boundaries of the head strong constellation Aries . Some 100 million light-years beyond the stars and nebulae of our Milky Way…
Our Increasingly Active Sun
Our Sun is becoming a busy place. Only two years ago, the Sun was emerging from a solar minimum so quiet that month s would go by without even a single sunspot . In contrast,…
Comet ZTF over Yosemite Falls
They are both falling. The water in Yosemite Falls , California , USA , is falling toward the Earth. Comet ZTF is falling toward the Sun . This double cosmic cascade was captured…
NGC 1850: Not Found in the Milky Way
There is nothing like this ball of stars in our Milky Way Galaxy. This is surprising because, at first glance, this featured image by the Hubble Space Telescope suggests that star…
Seven Dusty Sisters in Infrared
Is this really the famous Pleiades star cluster? Known for its iconic blue stars , the Pleiades is shown here in infrared light where the surrounding dust outshines the stars.…
Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1365 from Webb
A mere 56 million light-years distant toward the southern constellation Fornax, NGC 1365 is an enormous barred spiral galaxy about 200,000 light-years in diameter. That's twice…
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2023 CX1 Meteor Flash
While scanning the skies for near earth objects Hungarian astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky first imaged the meter-sized space rock now cataloged as 2023 CX1 on 12 February 2023 at…
The Hydra Cluster of Galaxies
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, O'er volumes of astronomy and forgotten lore, I stumbled upon this snapshot, cosmic and eerie, A sight that filled my…
Airglow Sky over France
This unusual sky was both familiar and unfamiliar. The photographer's mission was to capture the arch of the familiar central band of our Milky Way Galaxy over a picturesque…
The Heart and Soul Nebulas
Is the heart and soul of our Galaxy located in Cassiopeia ? Possibly not, but that is where two bright emission nebulas nicknamed Heart and Soul can be found. The Heart Nebula ,…
Comet ZTF and Mars
No, Comet ZTF is not going to hit Mars. Nicknamed the Green Comet for its bright green coma, C/2022 E3 (ZTF) did, however, pass almost in front of the much-more distant planet a…
Mammatus Clouds over Nebraska
When do cloud bottoms appear like bubbles? Normally, cloud bottoms are flat . This is because moist warm air that rises and cools will condense into water droplets at a specific…
Magellanic Clouds over Chile
The two prominent clouds in this Chilean Atacama Desert skyscape captured on January 21 actually lie beyond our Milky Way galaxy. Known as the Large and the Small Magellanic…
ZTF meets ATLAS
Fading as it races across planet Earth's northern skies comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) shares this telescopic frame with comet C/2022 U2 (ATLAS) . Captured on the night of February 6 from…
Viewing discoveries from 5 March 2023 through 10 February 2023.