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.
Quadrantids of the North
Named for a forgotten constellation , the Quadrantid Meteor Shower puts on an annual show for planet Earth's northern hemisphere skygazers. The shower's radiant on the sky lies…
The Light, the Dark, and the Dusty
This colorful skyscape spans about three full moons across nebula rich starfields along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy toward the royal northern constellation Cepheus . Near…
Thor's Helmet
Thor not only has his own day (Thursday), but a helmet in the heavens. Popularly called Thor's Helmet, NGC 2359 is a hat-shaped cosmic cloud with wing-like appendages. Heroically…
The Phases of Venus
Venus goes through phases . Just like our Moon, Venus can appear as a full circular disk, a thin crescent , or anything in between. Venus, frequently the brightest object in the…
The Cat's Eye Nebula in Optical and X-ray
To some it looks like a cat's eye. To others, perhaps like a giant cosmic conch shell . It is actually one of the brightest and most highly detailed planetary nebula known,…
Trapezium: At the Heart of Orion
Near the center of this sharp cosmic portrait, at the heart of the Orion Nebula , are four hot, massive stars known as the Trapezium . Gathered within a region about 1.5…
Zeta Oph: Runaway Star
Like a ship plowing through cosmic seas, runaway star Zeta Ophiuchi produces the arcing interstellar bow wave or bow shock seen in this stunning infrared portrait. In the…
A SAR Arc from New Zealand
What is that unusual red halo surrounding this aurora? It is a Stable Auroral Red (SAR) arc. SAR arc s are rare and have only been acknowledged and studied since 1954. The…
Rocket Transits Rippling Moon
Can a rocket make the Moon ripple? No, but it can make a background moon appear wavy . The rocket, in this case, was a SpaceX Falcon Heavy that blasted off from NASA 's Kennedy…
NGC 1232: A Grand Design Spiral Galaxy
Galaxies are fascinating not only for what is visible, but for what is invisible. Grand spiral galaxy NGC 1232 , captured in detail by one of the Very Large Telescopes , is a good…
The Persistence of Moonlight
Known to some in the northern hemisphere as December's Cold Moon or the Long Night Moon , the last full moon of 2023 is rising in this surreal mountain and skyscape. The Daliesque…
Shakespeare in Space
In 1986, Voyager 2 became the only spacecraft to explore ice giant planet Uranus close up. Still, this newly released image from the NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on the James…
Jupiter and the Geminid
For a brief moment , this brilliant fireball meteor outshone Jupiter in planet Earth's night. The serendipitous image was captured while hunting meteors under cold Canadian skies…
Rainbow Aurora over Icelandic Waterfall
Yes, but can your aurora do this? First, yes, auroras can look like rainbows even though they are completely different phenomena. Auroras are caused by Sun-created particles being…
IC 443: The Jellyfish Nebula
Why is this jellyfish swimming in a sea of stars? Drifting near bright star Eta Geminorum , seen at the right, the Jellyfish Nebula extends its tentacles from the bright arcing…
Cathedral, Mountain, Moon
Single shots like this require planning. The first step is to realize that such an amazing triple-alignment actually takes place. The second step is to find the best location to…
NGC 2440: Cocoon of a New White Dwarf
What's that in the center? Like a butterfly , a white dwarf star begins its life by casting off a cocoon of gas that enclosed its former self. In this analogy, however, the Sun…
A December Summer Night
Colours of a serene evening sky are captured in this 8 minute exposure, made near this December's solstice from New Zealand, southern hemisphere, planet Earth . Looking south,…
183 Days in the Sun
A single 183 day exposure with a pinhole camera and photographic paper resulted in this long-duration solargraph . Recorded from solstice to solstice , June 21 to December 21, in…
Three Galaxies and a Comet
Distant galaxies abound in this one degree wide field of view toward the southern constellation Grus (The Crane). But the three spiral galaxies at the lower right are quite…
Ice Halos over Bavaria
What's causing those unusual sky arcs? Ice crystals. While crossing a field of fresh snow near Füssen , Bavaria , Germany , earlier this month, the photographer noticed that he…
NGC 1499: The California Nebula
Could Queen Calafia 's mythical island exist in space? Perhaps not, but by chance the outline of this molecular space cloud echoes the outline of the state of California , USA.…
The Same Color Illusion
Are squares A and B the same color? They are! To verify this, either run your cursor over the image or click here to see them connected. The featured illusion , an example of the…
Geminids over China's Nianhu Lake
Where are all of these meteors coming from? In terms of direction on the sky, the pointed answer is the constellation of Gemini. That is why the major meteor shower in December is…
Viewing discoveries from 11 January 2024 through 17 December 2023.