NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

Every clear night, somewhere above your head, photons that left their source centuries or millennia ago arrive quietly at telescopes pointed upward. The Astronomy Picture of the Day exists to make sure some of those arrivals don't go unnoticed. Since June 1995 two astronomers — Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell — have curated exactly one image per day: a comet disintegrating, a supernova remnant still glowing a thousand years after its star died, the shadow of the Milky Way arching over a volcano. More than nine thousand entries later, it remains one of the most beloved corners of the internet.

What you'll find in the archive

• 🌌 Deep-sky classics: nebulae, clusters and galaxies rendered by world-class observatories and gifted amateurs alike
• 🪐 Planetary events: eclipses, conjunctions, aurorae and rocket launches photographed from the ground
• 🎬 Video entries: time-lapses of the rotating sky and footage from missions like Perseverance and JWST

The explanations are written to be read by anyone curious — no physics degree required — yet they rarely shy away from real science: light-years, redshift, emission lines. That combination of beauty and honesty is why teachers project APOD in classrooms and why entire communities celebrate its anniversaries.

A daily ritual worth keeping

Spend thirty seconds a day here and over a year you will have toured the observable universe — its birth places of stars, its dead suns, its restless planets — without ever leaving your morning coffee. The sky really is for everyone; this page simply hands you the invitation.