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.
IC 1795: The Fishhead Nebula
To some, this nebula looks like the head of a fish . However, this colorful cosmic portrait really features glowing gas and obscuring dust clouds in IC 1795, a star forming region…
GK Per: Nova and Planetary Nebula
The star system GK Per is known to be associated with only two of the three nebulas pictured . At 1500 light years distant, Nova Persei 1901 ( GK Persei ) was the second closest…
Comet, Planet, Moon
Three bright objects satisfied seasoned stargazers of the western sky just after sunset earlier this month. The most familiar was the Moon , seen on the upper left in a crescent…
Rings Around the Ring Nebula
The Ring Nebula (M57) is more complicated than it appears through a small telescope. The easily visible central ring is about one light-year across, but this remarkably deep…
All Sky Moon Shadow
If the Sun is up but the sky is dark and the horizon is bright all around, you might be standing in the Moon's shadow during a total eclipse of the Sun. In fact, the all-sky Moon…
Regulus and the Dwarf Galaxy
In northern hemisphere spring , bright star Regulus is easy to spot above the eastern horizon. The alpha star of the constellation Leo, Regulus is the spiky star centered in this…
NGC 604: Giant Stellar Nursery
Located some 3 million light-years away in the arms of nearby spiral galaxy M33 , giant stellar nursery NGC 604 is about 1,300 light-years across. That's nearly 100 times the size…
Dragon's Egg Bipolar Emission Nebula
How did a star form this beautiful nebula? In the middle of emission nebula NGC 6164 is an unusually massive star . The central star has been compared to an oyster's pearl and an…
Contrail Shadow X
What created this giant X in the clouds? It was the shadow of contrails . When airplanes fly, humid engine exhaust may form water droplets that might freeze in Earth's cold upper…
Moon and Smoke Rings from Mt. Etna
Yes, but can your volcano do this? To the surprise of some, Mt. Etna emits, on occasion, smoke rings. Technically known as vortex rings , the walls of the volcano slightly slow…
Perijove 16: Passing Jupiter
Watch Juno zoom past Jupiter. NASA's robotic spacecraft Juno is continuing on its now month-long, highly-elongated orbits around our Solar System's largest planet. The featured…
Diamonds in the Sky
When the dark shadow of the Moon raced across North America on April 8, sky watchers along the shadow's narrow central path were treated to a total solar eclipse. During the New…
The Great Carina Nebula
A jewel of the southern sky , the Great Carina Nebula is more modestly known as NGC 3372. One of our Galaxy's largest star forming regions, it spans over 300 light-years. Like the…
Facing NGC 1232
From our vantage point in the Milky Way Galaxy , we see NGC 1232 face-on. Nearly 200,000 light-years across, the big, beautiful spiral galaxy is located some 47 million…
Total Eclipse and Comets
Not one, but two comets appeared near the Sun during last week's total solar eclipse . The expected comet was Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks , but it was disappointingly dimmer than many…
Filaments of the Vela Supernova Remnant
The explosion is over, but the consequences continue. About eleven thousand years ago, a star in the constellation of Vela could be seen to explode , creating a strange point of…
The Cigar Galaxy from Hubble and Webb
Something strange happened to this galaxy, but what? Known as the Cigar Galaxy and cataloged as M82 , red glowing gas and dust are being cast out from the center. Although this…
How a Total Solar Eclipse Ended
How does a total solar eclipse end? Yes, the Moon moves out from fully blocking the Sun, but in the first few seconds of transition, interesting things appear. The first is called…
Palm Tree Partial Eclipse
Only those along the narrow track of the Moon's shadow on April 8 saw a total solar eclipse. But most of North America still saw a partial eclipse of the Sun. From Clearwater,…
Total Totality
Baily's beads often appear at the boundaries of the total phase of an eclipse of the Sun. Pearls of sunlight still beaming through gaps in the rugged terrain along the lunar limb…
Eclipse in Seven
Start at the upper left above and you can follow the progress of April 8's total eclipse of the Sun in seven sharp, separate exposures. The image sequence was recorded with a…
Planets Around a Total Eclipse
What wonders appear when the Moon blocks the Sun? For many eager observers of Monday's total eclipse of the Sun, the suddenly dark sky included the expected corona and two…
Moon's Shadow over Lake Magog
Captured in this snapshot, the shadow of the Moon came to Lake Magog, Quebec, North America, planet Earth on April 8. For the lakeside eclipse chasers, the much anticipated total…
The Changing Ion Tail of Comet Pons-Brooks
How does a comet tail change? It depends on the comet. The ion tail of Comet 12P/Pons-Brooks has been changing markedly, as detailed in the featured image sequenced over nine days…
Viewing discoveries from 1 May 2024 through 8 April 2024.