Browse NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day archive by date and media: Archive Discoveries
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The Spinning Pulsar of the Crab Nebula
At the core of the Crab Nebula lies a city-sized, magnetized neutron star spinning 30 times a second. Known as the Crab Pulsar , it is the bright spot in the center of the gaseous…
Fishing for the Moon
How big is planet Earth's Moon ? Compared to other moons of the Solar System, it's number 5 on the largest to smallest ranked list , following Jupiter's moon Ganymede , Saturn's…
A Tale of Two Nebulae
This colorful telescopic view towards the musical northern constellation Lyra reveals the faint outer halos and brighter central ring-shaped region of M57, popularly known as the…
Mostly Perseids
In this predawn skyscape recorded during the early morning hours of August 13, mostly Perseid meteors are raining down on planet Earth. You can easily identify the Perseid meteor…
Perseid Meteors from Durdle Door
What are those curved arcs in the sky? Meteors -- specifically, meteors from this year's Perseid meteor shower . Over the past few weeks, after the sky darkened, many images of…
Giant Galaxies in Pavo
Over 500,000 light years across, NGC 6872 (bottom left) is a truly enormous barred spiral galaxy . At least 5 times the size of our own large Milky Way, NGC 6872 is the largest…
NGC 1309: A Useful Spiral Galaxy
This galaxy is not only pretty -- it's useful. A gorgeous spiral some 100 million light-years distant, NGC 1309 lies on the banks of the constellation of the River ( Eridanus ).…
Asperitas Clouds Over New Zealand
What kind of clouds are these? Although their cause is presently unknown, such unusual atmospheric structures, as menacing as they might seem, do not appear to be harbingers of…
A Cool GIF of a 2025 Perseid
The camera battery died about 2am local time on August 12, while shooting in the bright moonlit skies from a garden in Chastre, Brabant Wallon, Belgium, planet Earth. But not…
Moonlight, Planets, and Perseids
In the predawn sky on August 13, two planets were close. And despite the glare of a waning gibbous Moon, bright Jupiter and even brighter Venus were hard to miss. Their brilliant…
M13: The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules
In 1716 , English astronomer Edmond Halley noted, “This is but a little Patch, but it shews itself to the naked Eye, when the Sky is serene and the Moon absent.” Of course, M13 is…
Trapezium: In the Heart of Orion
What lies in the heart of Orion? Trapezium: four bright stars, that can be found near the center of this sharp cosmic portrait . Gathered within a region about 1.5 light-years in…
Perseids from Perseus
Where are all of these meteors coming from? In terms of direction on the sky, the pointed answer is the constellation of Perseus. That is why the meteor shower that peaks tonight…
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Closest Ever Images Near the Sun
Everybody sees the Sun. Nobody's been there. Starting in 2018, though, NASA launch ed the robotic Parker Solar Probe (PSP) to investigate regions near to the Sun for the first…
Zodiacal Road
What's that strange light down the road? Dust orbiting the Sun. At certain times of the year, a band of sun-reflecting dust from the inner Solar System appears prominently just…
Interstellar Interloper 3I/ATLAS from Hubble
Discovered on July 1 with the NASA-funded ATLAS (Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System) survey telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile, 3I/ATLAS is so designated as the third…
Dawn of the Crab
One of the all-time historic skyscapes occured in July 1054, when the Crab Supernova blazed into the dawn sky. Chinese court astrologers first saw the Guest Star on the morning of…
The Double Cluster in Perseus
This stunning 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…
Meteor before Galaxy
What's that green streak in front of the Andromeda galaxy? A meteor. While photographing the Andromeda galaxy in 2016, near the peak of the Perseid Meteor Shower , a small pebble…
NGC 6072: A Complex Planetary Nebula from Webb
Why is this nebula so complex? The Webb Space Telescope has imaged a nebula in great detail that is thought to have emerged from a Sun -like star. NGC 6072 has been resolved into…
Blue Arcs Toward Andromeda
What are these gigantic blue arcs near the Andromeda Galaxy (M31)? Discovered in 2022 by amateur astronomers, the faint arcs -- dubbed SDSO 1 -- span nearly the same angular size…
Milky Way and Exploding Meteor
In about a week the Perseid Meteor Shower will reach its maximum. Grains of icy rock will streak across the sky as they evaporate during entry into Earth's atmosphere . These…
Fireflies, Meteors, and Milky Way
Taken on July 29 and July 30, a registered and stacked series of exposures creates this dreamlike view of a northern summer night . Multiple firefly flashes streak across the…
Small Dark Nebula
A small, dark, nebula looks isolated near the center of this telescopic close-up. The wedge-shaped cosmic cloudlet lies within a relatively crowded region of space though. About…
Viewing discoveries from 24 August 2025 through 1 August 2025.