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.
Reflections on VdB 31
Riding high in the constellation of Auriga, beautiful, blue VdB 31 is the 31st object in Sidney van den Bergh's 1966 catalog of reflection nebulae . It shares this well-composed…
Asteroid Bennu Holds the Building Blocks of Life
What can a space rock tell us about life on Earth? NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft made a careful approach to the near-Earth asteroid 101955 Bennu in October of 2020 to collect…
The Spider and the Fly
Will the spider ever catch the fly? Not if both are large emission nebulas toward the constellation of the Charioteer ( Auriga ). The spider -shaped gas cloud in the image center…
Auroral Hummingbird over Norway
Is this the largest hummingbird ever? Although it may look like a popular fluttering nectarivore , what is pictured is actually a beautifully detailed and colorful aurora ,…
Milky Way over the Australian Pinnacles
What strange world is this? E a r t h . In the foreground of the featured image are the Pinnacles , unusual rock spires in Nambung National Park in Western Australia . Made of…
A Conjunction of Crescents
A waxing crescent Moon and a waning crescent Venus are found at opposite corners of this twilight telephoto field of view . The close conjunction of the two brightest celestial…
LEDA 1313424: The Bullseye Galaxy
The giant galaxy cataloged as LEDA 1313424 is about two and a half times the size of our own Milky Way. Its remarkable appearance in this recently released Hubble Space Telescope…
IC 2574: Coddington's Nebula
Grand spiral galaxies often seem to get all the glory, flaunting their young, bright, blue star clusters in beautiful, symmetric spiral arms. But small, irregular galaxies form…
Comet G3 ATLAS Setting over a Chilean Hill
Where is Comet ATLAS going? In the featured time-lapse video, the comet is not itself moving very much, but the Earth's rotation makes it appear to be setting over a hill. The…
Anticrepuscular Rays: A Rainbow Fan over Spain
Yes, but can your rainbow do this? Late in the day, the Sun set as usual toward the west. However, on this day, the more interesting display was 180 degrees around -- toward the…
Wolf-Rayet Star 124: Stellar Wind Machine
Some stars explode in slow motion. Rare, massive Wolf-Rayet stars are so tumultuous and hot that they are slowly disintegrating right before our telescopes. Glowing gas globs each…
Comet G3 ATLAS Disintegrates
What's happening to Comet G3 ATLAS? After passing near the Sun in mid-January, the head of the comet has become dimmer and dimmer. By late January, Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) had…
Nacreous Clouds over Sweden
Vivid and lustrous, wafting iridescent waves of color wash across this skyscape from northern Sweden. Known as nacreous clouds or mother-of-pearl clouds, they are rare. But their…
The Variable Nebula NGC 2261
The interstellar cloud of dust and gas captured in this sharp telescopic snapshot is seen to change its appearance noticeably over periods as short as a few weeks. Discovered over…
Hydrogen Clouds of M33
Gorgeous spiral galaxy Messier 33 seems to have more than its fair share of glowing hydrogen gas. A prominent member of the Local Group of galaxies, M33 is also known as the…
Dust Shells around WR 140 from Webb
What are those strange rings? Rich in dust, the rings are likely 3D shells -- but how they were created remains a topic of research . Where they were created is well known: in a…
Comet G3 ATLAS over Uruguay
Comets can be huge. When far from the Sun, a comet's size usually refers to its hard nucleus of ice and rock, which typically spans a few kilometers -- smaller than even a small…
Pleiades over Half Dome
Stars come in bunches. The most famous bunch of stars on the sky is the Pleiades , a bright cluster that can be easily seen with the unaided eye . The Pleiades lies only about 450…
The Many Tails of Comet G3 ATLAS
Why does this comet have so many tails? C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) has developed several long and intricate tails visible from Earth's southern hemisphere over the past two weeks. Many…
Stardust in the Perseus Molecular Cloud
Clouds of stardust drift through this deep skyscape , across the Perseus molecular cloud some 850 light-years away. Dusty nebulae reflecting light from embedded young stars stand…
Comet G3 ATLAS: a Tail and a Telescope
Comet C/2024 G3 ATLAS has made a dramatic appearance in planet Earth's skies. A visitor from the distant Oort Cloud , the comet reached its perihelion on January 13. On January…
NGC 7814: Little Sombrero
Point your telescope toward the high flying constellation Pegasus and you can find this cosmic expanse of Milky Way stars and distant galaxies . NGC 7814 is centered in the sharp…
The North America Nebula
The North America nebula on the sky can do what the North America continent on Earth cannot -- form stars. Specifically, in analogy to the Earth-confined continent, the bright…
Comet ATLAS over Brasília
What's that in the sky? Above the city, above most clouds, far in the distance: it's a comet. Pictured , the impressive tail of Comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) was imaged from Brasília ,…
Viewing discoveries from 13 February 2025 through 21 January 2025.