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.
Simulation: A Disk Galaxy Forms
How did we get here? We know that we live on a planet orbiting a star orbiting a galaxy, but how did all of this form? Since our universe moves too slowly to watch, faster-moving…
M27: The Dumbbell Nebula
Is this what will become of our Sun? Quite possibly. The first hint of our Sun 's future was discovered inadvertently in 1764 . At that time, Charles Messier was compiling a list…
Milky Way over a Turquoise Wonderland
What glows there? The answer depends: sea or sky? In the sea, the unusual blue glow is bioluminescence . Specifically, the glimmer arises from Noctiluca scintillans ,…
Ida and Dactyl: Asteroid and Moon
This asteroid has a moon. The robot spacecraft Galileo on route to Jupiter in 1993 encountered and photographed two asteroids during its long interplanetary voyage. The second…
Crescent Neptune and Triton
Gliding through the outer Solar System , in 1989 the Voyager 2 spacecraft looked toward the Sun to find this view of most distant planet Neptune and its moon Triton together in a…
Virgo Cluster Galaxies
Galaxies of the Virgo Cluster are scattered across this nearly 4 degree wide telescopic field of view . About 50 million light-years distant, the Virgo Cluster is the closest…
Cat's Eye Wide and Deep
The Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) is one of the best known planetary nebulae in the sky. Its more familiar outlines are seen in the brighter central region of the nebula in this…
Observatory Aligned with Moon Occulting Jupiter
Sometimes we witness the Moon moving directly in front of -- called occulting -- one of the planets in our Solar System . Earlier this month that planet was Jupiter. Captured here…
Jupiter's Swirls from Juno
Big storms are different on Jupiter. On Earth, huge hurricanes and colossal cyclones are centered on regions of low pressure, but on Jupiter, it is the high-pressure, anti-cyclone…
Supernova Discovered in Nearby Spiral Galaxy M101
A nearby star has exploded and humanity's telescopes are turning to monitor it. The supernova, dubbed SN 2023ixf , was discovered by Japanese astronomer Koichi Itagaki three days…
Tardigrade in Moss
Is this an alien? Probably not, but of all the animals on Earth, the tardigrade might be the best candidate. That's because tardigrades are known to be able to go for decades…
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…
Curly Spiral Galaxy M63
A bright spiral galaxy of the northern sky, Messier 63 is nearby, about 30 million light-years distant toward the loyal constellation Canes Venatici. Also cataloged as NGC 5055,…
WR 134 Ring Nebula
Made with narrowband filters, this cosmic snapshot covers a field of view about the size of the full Moon within the boundaries of the constellation Cygnus. It highlights the…
Sunspot with Light Bridge
Why would a small part of the Sun appear slightly dark? Visible is a close-up picture of sunspot s, depressions on the Sun's surface that are slightly cooler and less bright than…
Total Eclipse: The Big Corona
Most photographs don't adequately portray the magnificence of the Sun 's corona. Seeing the corona first-hand during a total solar eclipse is unparalleled . The human eye can…
M16: Eagle Nebula Deep Field
From afar, the whole thing looks like an eagle . A closer look at the Eagle Nebula , however, shows the bright region is actually a window into the center of a larger dark shell…
To Fly Free in Space
What would it be like to fly free in space? At about 100 meters from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Challenger , Bruce McCandless II was living the dream -- floating farther…
Apollo 17: The Crescent Earth
Our fair planet sports a curved, sunlit crescent against the black backdrop of space in this stunning photograph. From the unfamiliar perspective, the Earth is small and, like a…
Halley Dust, Mars Dust, and Milky Way
Grains of cosmic dust streaked through night skies in early May. Swept up as planet Earth plowed through the debris streams left behind by periodic Comet Halley , the annual…
Fomalhaut's Dusty Debris Disk
Fomalhaut is a bright star, a 25 light-year voyage from planet Earth in the direction of the constellation Piscis Austrinus . Astronomers first noticed Fomalhaut's excess infrared…
Milky Way over Egyptian Desert
For ten years the stargazer dreamed of taking a picture like this. The dreamer knew that the White Desert National Park in Egypt 's Western Desert is a picturesque place hosting…
Shadows of Earth
Can you find two Earth shadows in today's image? It's a bit tricky. To find the first shadow, observe that the top part of the atmosphere appears pink and the lower part appears…
The Spanish Dancer Spiral Galaxy
If not perfect, then this spiral galaxy is at least one of the most photogenic. An island universe containing billions of stars and situated about 40 million light-years away…
Viewing discoveries from 31 May 2023 through 8 May 2023.