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.
Three Sky Arches over Snowy Alps
Why are there three arches across the sky instead of two? Last month, after being dropped off by a helicopter at a high mountain peak in the Alps near the Swiss Italian border, an…
Comet R3 PanSTARRS over a Himalayan Valley
The best way to see comet R3 PanSTARRS’s long tail is with a camera. This week, the recently brightened comet appears in northern skies to the east just before dawn, but is only…
Eye on the Milky Way
Have you ever had stars in your eyes ? It appears that the eye on the left does, and moreover, it appears to be gazing at even more stars. The featured 27-frame mosaic was taken…
PanSTARRS and Planets
Near the eastern horizon before sunrise, Comet C/2025 R3 PanSTARRS is getting brighter . Readily visible in binoculars and small telescopes, the comet may be just on the verge of…
M82: Starburst Galaxy with a Superwind
Messier 82 is a starburst galaxy with a superwind. In fact, through supernova explosions and powerful winds from massive stars, the burst of star formation in M82 is driving a…
South Celestial Tree
If you live in the northern hemisphere , you may have learned how to locate the North Star, Polaris , in the night sky. It can be used to find north, and it approximately marks…
The ISS Transits the Moon
Nope, that is not an alien spaceship landing on the Moon! This is an image of the International Space Station (ISS) as it begins to transit in front of the Moon . The ISS is in…
The Long Wispy Tail of Comet R3 (PanSTARRS)
Why does Comet R3 (PanSTARRS) have a wispy tail? The newest bright member of the inner Solar System, Comet C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) is already extending an impressive stream of…
NGC 602 and Beyond
The clouds may look like an oyster, and the stars like pearls, but look beyond. Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud , a satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years…
Comet R3 (PanSTARRS) Brightens
Comet R3 is brightening rapidly -- will it survive? C/2025 R3 (PanSTARRS) has been slowly brightening and extending an ion tail since its discovery last year. This shedding…
Artemis II: Flight Day 6
On flight day 6 (April 6) the Artemis II mission achieved a historic lunar flyby . Rounding the lunar far side, the deep space maneuver marked humanity's first venture to the Moon…
Exploring the Antennae
Some 60 million light-years away in the southerly constellation Corvus , two large galaxies are colliding. Stars in the two galaxies, cataloged as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 , very…
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Destruction of Comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS)
As the crew of Artemis II travelled towards the Moon this week, Comet C/2026 A1 (MAPS) was expected to have its closest approach to the Sun on Monday. At this point, comet and Sun…
Earthset
And to all of you down there on Earth and around Earth, we love you, from the Moon. We will see you on the other side, said Artemis II pilot Victor Glover on April 6th at 6:44pm…
IC 4592: The Blue Horsehead Reflection Nebula
Do you see the horse's head? What you are seeing is not the famous Horsehead nebula toward Orion , but rather a fainter nebula that only takes on a familiar form with deeper…
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The Path of Artemis II
Why doesn't Artemis II land on the Moon? The main reason is that Artemis II is primarily a test mission designed to make a future Artemis missions -- which will land humans on the…
NGC 3310: A Starburst Spiral Galaxy
The party is still going on in spiral galaxy NGC 3310. Roughly 100 million years ago, NGC 3310 likely collided with a smaller galaxy causing the large spiral galaxy to light up…
Hello World
From pole to pole our fair planet is captured in this snapshot from space, an evocative image from a window of the Orion spacecraft Integrity. From the spacecraft's perspective…
Caught in the Web: Visualization of a Black Hole Merger in the Tarantula Nebula
How can we see what is invisible? Black holes are not easy to see in the dark cosmic night, but astronomers can find them by analyzing their gravitational effects on matter ,…
Liftoff! Returning to the Moon
We are one small step closer to returning to the Moon. A new chapter in human exploration began yesterday when NASA's Artemis II launched aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) from…
The Claw and Bubble Nebulae
What unexpected things do you see when you look up at the night sky? Today’s image resembles an abstract painting , with large swaths of color strewn across a cosmic canvas…
Uranus's Largest Moon: Titania
Titania's tortured terrain is a mix of canyons, cliffs, and craters. NASA 's interplanetary robot spacecraft Voyager 2 passed the largest moon of Uranus in 1986 and took the…
Peculiar Elliptical Galaxy Centaurus A
What's happened to the center of this galaxy? Dramatic dust lanes run across the center of unusual elliptical galaxy Centaurus A . These dust lanes are so thick they almost…
A Message from Earth
What are these Earthlings trying to tell us? The featured message was broadcast from Earth towards the globular star cluster M13 in 1974. During the dedication of an upgrade to…
Viewing discoveries from 21 April 2026 through 29 March 2026.