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.
Road to the Galactic Center
Does the road to our galaxy's center go through Monument Valley ? It doesn't have to, but if your road does -- take a picture. In this case, the road is US Route 163 and iconic…
A Full Moon at Perigee
What is big, bright, and beautiful , can wear a cape made of clouds, and is at the closest point in its elliptical orbit around planet Earth? A full moon at perigee of course,…
A Dark Seahorse in Cepheus
Spanning light-years, this suggestive shape known as the Seahorse Nebula floats in silhouette against a rich background of stars and glowing hydrogen gas. Seen toward the royal…
NGC 253: Dusty Island Universe
Shiny NGC 253 is one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible, and also one of the dustiest. Some call it the Silver Coin Galaxy for its appearance in small telescopes, or just…
Spiral Galaxy NGC 3370 from Hubble
Is this what our own Milky Way Galaxy looks like from far away? Similar in size and grand design to our home Galaxy (although without the central bar), spiral galaxy NGC 3370 lies…
Comet Lemmon Beyond Lomnický Peak
Comet Lemmon has been putting on a show for cameras around the globe. Passing nearest to Earth in late October, the photogenic comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) sprouted two long and…
A Double Helix Lunar Eclipse
The image was timed to capture a total lunar eclipse -- but it came with quite a twist. First, the eclipse : the fully Earth-shadowed Moon is visible as the orange orb near the…
A Horseshoe Einstein Ring from Hubble
What's large and blue and can wrap itself around an entire galaxy? A gravitational lens mirage. Pictured here , the gravity of a massive elliptical galaxy (luminous red galaxy:…
Pleiades from Planet Earth
The lovely Pleiades star cluster shines in Earth's night sky, a compact group of stars some 400 light-years distant toward the constellation Taurus and the Orion Arm of our Milky…
Ghosts in Cassiopeia
Halloween is an astronomy holiday and spooky shapes always seem to lurk in planet Earth's night skies. In fact, near the center of this telescopic view toward the constellation…
Lynds Dark Nebula 43
Sure, Halloween is an astronomy holiday . But astronomers always enjoy scanning the heavens for spook-tacular galaxies , stars, and nebulae. This favorite is item number 43 from…
Dust Shapes of the Ghost Nebula
Do any shapes seem to jump out at you from this interstellar field of stars and dust? The jeweled expanse, filled with faint, starlight-reflecting clouds, drifts through the night…
NGC 6995: The Bat Nebula
Can you see the bat? It haunts this cosmic close-up of the eastern Veil Nebula . The Veil Nebula itself is a large supernova remnant, the expanding debris cloud from the death…
Two Tails of Comet Lemmon
How many bright tails does Comet Lemmon have? Two. In the featured image it appears to have three, but why? The reason is that the zigzagging brown filament is a persistent meteor…
Halloween and the Ghost Head Nebula
Halloween's origin is ancient and astronomical. Since the fifth century BC, Halloween has been celebrated as a cross-quarter day , a day halfway between an equinox (equal day /…
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…
Saturn at Night
Saturn is bright in Earth's night skies. Telescopic views of the outer gas giant planet and its beautiful rings often make it a star at star parties . But this stunning view of…
SWAN, Swan, Eagle
Comet C/2025 R2 (SWAN) sports a greenish coma and fainter tail, seen against congeries of stars and dusty interstellar clouds in this 7 degree wide telescopic field of view from…
Comet Lemmon over the High Tatras
Comet Lemmon putting on a show for cameras around the globe. Passing nearest to the Earth this week, the photogenic comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) is now extending two long tails : a…
IC 1805: The Heart Nebula
What electrifies the Heart Nebula? First, the large emission nebula on the left, catalogued as IC 1805 , looks somewhat like a human heart . The nebula glows brightly in red light…
Finding Comet Lemmon
Tonight, if you can see the stars of the Big Dipper , then you can find comet Lemmon in your evening sky. After sunset, look for the faint but extended comet above your…
Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko Creates Its Tails
Where do comet tails come from? There are usually no obvious places on the nuclei of comets from which the jets that create comet tails emanate. One of the best images of emerging…
3D Bennu
Put on your red/blue glasses and float next to asteroid 101955 Bennu . Shaped like a spinning toy top with boulders littering its rough surface, the tiny Solar System world is…
Ida and Dactyl: Asteroid and Moon
This asteroid has a moon. The robot spacecraft Galileo enroute to explore the Jovian system in 1993, encountered and photographed two asteroids during its long interplanetary…
Viewing discoveries from 9 November 2025 through 17 October 2025.