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.
Milky Way above La Palma Observatory
What's happening in the night sky? To help find out, telescopes all over the globe will be pointing into deep space. Investigations will include trying to understand the early…
Shells and Arcs around Star CW Leonis
What's happening around this star? No one is sure. CW Leonis is the closest carbon star , a star that appears orange because of atmospheric carbon dispersed from interior nuclear…
Meteor and Milky Way over the Alps
Now this was a view with a thrill. From Mount Tschirgant in the Alps , you can see not only nearby towns and distant Tyrol ean peaks, but also, weather permitting, stars, nebulas,…
Webb's First Deep Field
This stunning infrared image was released one year ago as the James Webb Space Telescope began its exploration of the cosmos. The view of the early Universe toward the southern…
Comet C/2023 E1 ATLAS near Perihelion
Comet C/2023 E1 (ATLAS) was just spotted in March, another comet found by the NASA funded Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System. On July 1 this Comet ATLAS reached…
Webb's Rho Ophiuchi
A mere 390 light-years away , Sun-like stars and future planetary systems are forming in the Rho Ophiuchi molecular cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to our fair…
Rings and Bar of Spiral Galaxy NGC 1398
Why do some spiral galaxies have a ring around the center? Spiral galaxy NGC 1398 not only has a ring of pearly stars, gas and dust around its center, but a bar of stars and gas…
Sunspots on an Active Sun
Why is our Sun so active now ? No one is sure. An increase in surface activity was expected because our Sun is approaching solar maximum in 2025. However, last month our Sun…
Stars, Dust and Nebula in NGC 6559
When stars form, pandemonium reigns. A textbook case is the star forming region NGC 6559 . Visible in the featured image are red glowing emission nebula s of hydrogen , blue…
Doomed Star Eta Carinae
Eta Carinae may be about to explode. But no one knows when - it may be next year, it may be one million years from now. Eta Carinae 's mass - about 100 times greater than our Sun…
Stickney Crater
Stickney Crater, the largest crater on the martian moon Phobos, is named for Chloe Angeline Stickney Hall, mathematician and wife of astronomer Asaph Hall. Asaph Hall discovered…
The Double Cluster in Perseus
This pretty starfield spans about three full moons (1.5 degrees) across the heroic northern constellation of Perseus . It holds the famous pair of open star clusters , h and Chi…
Fireworks vs Supermoon
On July 4, an almost Full Moon rose in planet Earth's evening skies. Also known as a Buck Moon, the full lunar phase ( full on July 3 at 11:39 UTC) was near perigee, the closest…
A Map of the Observable Universe
What if you could see out to the edge of the observable universe ? You would see galaxies, galaxies, galaxies, and then, well, quasar s, which are the bright centers of distant…
Aurora over Icelandic Waterfall
It seemed like the sky exploded. The original idea was to photograph an aurora over a waterfall. After waiting for hours under opaque clouds , though, hope was running out. Others…
Venus in Ultraviolet from Akatsuki
Why is Venus so different from Earth? To help find out, Japan launched the robotic Akatsuki spacecraft which entered orbit around Venus late in 2015 after an unplanned five-year…
Milky Way and Aurora over Antarctica
It was one of the better skies of this long night. In parts of Antarctica , not only is it winter, but the Sun can spend weeks below the horizon. At China 's Zhongshan Station ,…
Three Galaxies in Draco
This tantalizing trio of galaxies sometimes called the Draco Group, is located in the northern constellation of (you guessed it) Draco, the Dragon . From left to right are face-on…
Orbits of Potentially Hazardous Asteroids
Are asteroids dangerous? Some are, but the likelihood of a dangerous asteroid striking the Earth during any given year is low. Because some past mass extinction event s have been…
A Message from the Gravitational Universe
Monitoring 68 pulsar s with very large radio telescope s, the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) has uncovered evidence for the gravitational…
Messier 24: Sagittarius Star Cloud
Unlike most entries in Charles Messier's famous catalog of deep sky objects, M24 is not a bright galaxy, star cluster, or nebula. It's a gap in nearby, obscuring interstellar dust…
MAVEN's Ultraviolet Mars
These two global views of Mars were captured at ultraviolet wavelengths, beyond the spectrum visible to human eyes. Recorded by the MAVEN spacecraft's Imaging Ultraviolet…
The Belt of Venus over Mount Everest
You've surely seen it, but you might not have noticed it. During a cloudless twilight , just before sunrise or after sunset , part of the atmosphere above the horizon appears…
Lightning on Jupiter
Does lightning occur only on Earth? No. Spacecraft in our Solar System have detected lightning on other planets, including Mars , Jupiter and Saturn , and lightning is likely on…
Viewing discoveries from 18 July 2023 through 25 June 2023.