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What is Astronomy Picture of the Day?

Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is a daily feature from NASA that publishes one astronomy or space-science image or photograph each day, accompanied by a short explanation written by a professional astronomer. It is less a browsable gallery and more a daily ritual: you visit, see one curated view of the universe, read a few paragraphs of context, and leave with something specific learned.

What you get on a typical page

• A single featured image, which may be a telescope photograph, a spacecraft image, a visualization, or occasionally a short video.
• A brief explanatory text covering what you are looking at, how it was captured, and why it matters.
• Credits for the image and the text author, plus navigation to the previous day, archive, index, search, calendar and RSS feed.

The page evidence illustrates the format well: a recent entry described a new lunar crater named McGetchin, formed when a roughly 10–20 meter object struck the Moon between April and May 2024. The text explained that the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured before-and-after images, that the crater is about two soccer fields across, that craters of this size are expected only about once every 132 years, and that thermal imaging showed a surrounding cold spot because disturbed regolith retains heat differently. That is the characteristic APOD mix: one striking image plus the physical reasoning behind it.

Who tends to use it

Trade-offs to know

Because it is one image per day, APOD is not a systematic reference: you cannot easily browse by topic unless you use the archive, index or search. The explanations are brief by design, so readers wanting depth will need to follow the linked background themselves. Content also assumes some comfort with scientific vocabulary, though the writing is generally accessible. The page notes that APOD's main NASA site is moving from apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod, so bookmark updates may be needed.

A practical next step: if you want to use APOD regularly, subscribe to its RSS feed or check the calendar view to catch images tied to specific dates or events, and use the search page when you need a particular object rather than whatever happens to be featured today. For a broader official collection of NASA imagery, NASA Image and Video Library is a useful companion when one daily image is not enough.

How can I view past APOD images in the archive?

Use the Archive link in the navigation bar at the bottom of the page. On Astronomy Picture of the Day, that link leads to the full back-catalogue of daily entries, each with its image and the accompanying astronomer-written explanation.

Ways to find a past image

• Browse by date: The archive is organised chronologically, so you can step back day by day from the current entry.
• Jump to a known date: If you remember roughly when an image appeared, work backwards from that year and month rather than paging through everything.
• Search: The Search link in the same navigation row is the faster route when you recall a subject (a comet, a crater, a mission) but not the date.
• Index: The Index link groups entries in a compact list, which suits scanning many titles at once.
• Calendar: The Calendar link lays entries out by month, useful if you want a specific day.

The archive is also the only practical way to see the before and after pairs that make some entries work. The 23 September 2026 entry on the new lunar crater McGetchin, for example, relies on Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter monitoring images taken before and after an impact; the explanation notes the crater is about two soccer fields across and that such an event is expected roughly once every 132 years. Seeing the earlier frame in context is what makes the change legible.

Practical next step

Decide what you actually remember: a date points you to the Calendar or Archive; a subject points you to Search; a title or theme points you to the Index. If you only want to keep up from now on, the RSS link in the same row is the better fit than revisiting the archive.

One caveat worth knowing: the page states that APOD's main NASA site is moving from apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod, so if an older bookmark stops resolving, try the NASA Science address. For related official archives of lunar and planetary imagery, NASA Image and Video Library and LROC are the natural companions when an APOD entry cites mission data.

How do I submit my own astronomy image to APOD?

Submit through APOD's official submissions page, linked from the site as "APOD Submissions." The site notes the submission email has changed, so use the current link on the APOD page rather than an old address you may have saved or seen quoted elsewhere. Start from Astronomy Picture of the Day and follow the Submissions link.

H3. What to expect from the process APOD is a curated, once-daily feature: one image or photograph per day with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer, as the site describes it. That means selection is editorial, not automatic, and most submissions won't appear. The daily format also means even strong images may not fit the schedule.

H3. What makes a submission competitive

• Astronomy or space-science content. The featured item is an image or photograph of the universe, so terrestrial landscapes or general nature shots are a poor fit unless the astronomical subject is genuinely central.
• Technical quality. Resolution, focus and processing matter because the image is presented as the day's feature.
• A clear explanation. Since each entry carries a short written explanation, be ready to describe what is shown, when and where it was taken, the equipment used, and what makes it interesting.
• Credit and permissions. If others helped capture or process the image, or if an institution or observatory owns it, sort out credit before submitting.
• Rights to use it. You're granting a public-facing publication the ability to display your work, so don't submit images you don't control.

H3. A practical example Suppose you've stacked several nights of exposures of a nebula from a dark-sky site. Your submission would typically include the final image, the capture and processing details, the date and location, your name and any co-credits, and a couple of sentences on what the image shows and why it's notable. If the image is part of a larger project, say so briefly; that context can help an editor judge it.

H3. Decision criteria before you send

• Is the astronomical subject the point of the image, or just a backdrop?
• Can you explain it clearly in a short paragraph?
• Do you hold the rights, and are all credits accurate?
• Would it still look strong at the size and compression a web feature uses?

If the answer to any of these is no, improving the image or the write-up first is usually a better use of time than submitting immediately.

H3. Useful next steps Read a week or two of recent APOD entries to see the range of subjects and the style of the accompanying explanations; that's the clearest guide to what fits. If your work is more instructional than pictorial, a different outlet may suit better — for example, NASA's broader science coverage at NASA Science, which the APOD page notes as its new main site location. For day-to-day space imagery from a specific mission or observatory, check that mission's own official pages instead.

What does the APOD explanation text tell me about each image?

The explanation text is the editorial layer that turns APOD from an image feed into a short daily science read. Each day's entry pairs one image or photograph with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer, so the text tells you what you are looking at, how the image was made, and why it matters.

What the text typically covers

• Identification: the object, region or event shown, plus the date or observing window when relevant.
• Scale and context: sizes, distances and comparisons that make an unfamiliar object graspable.
• Provenance: the instruments, missions or observatories behind the image, and the people or institutions credited.
• Interpretation: what the observation implies, including uncertainty or open questions.
• Follow-up work: related data or later observations that extend the story.

A worked example from the page The featured entry describes a new lunar crater named McGetchin, formed when a comet or asteroid roughly 10–20 metres across struck the Moon between April and May 2024. The text notes that the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's monthly monitoring captured before-and-after images, that the crater is about two soccer fields across, and that craters of this size are expected only once every 132 years. It then explains the follow-up thermal imaging: a large cold spot surrounds the warm crater because the impact puffed up loose regolith, making it less dense and poorer at retaining heat. That is the pattern to expect — a plain-language summary of what was seen, how it was measured, and what the measurement suggests.

How to use it Read the text first if you want the science, or the image first if you want to test your own interpretation before checking. Either way, treat the explanation as a starting point rather than a full paper: it gives you the vocabulary and the key numbers to search further. For a deeper dive, the credit lines and mission names in the text point to the institutions and instruments involved, and the archive lets you revisit earlier entries on the same theme.

Trade-offs to expect Explanations are short by design, so complex results get compressed and nuance is limited. They are also written for a general audience, which means jargon is usually translated but not always fully defined. If you need quantitative detail or methodological caveats, go to the underlying mission or journal source the text references.

Next step Pick one recent entry, read the explanation, then look up the credited mission or observatory to see the original data release. That two-step habit turns a daily image into a small, repeatable research routine.

How can I receive APOD daily through email or RSS?

APOD offers two main ways to get the daily image without visiting the site: a daily email digest and an RSS feed. Both are free and run by the site itself.

Email APOD maintains an email list that sends the day's image and explanation. The page links to its own "Submissions" and "About APOD" sections, and the submission address has recently changed, so if you have an old contact saved, check the current one on the site rather than reusing it. Email suits people who want the image and the astronomer's text delivered together and readable offline, and who don't mind one message per day landing in their inbox.

RSS An RSS reader is the lighter option: the page's navigation includes an RSS link, so you subscribe once with a feed reader (Feedly, Inoreader, NetNewsWire, or similar) and new entries appear there. This keeps APOD alongside other feeds, avoids inbox clutter, and lets you archive or search past entries.

Practical next step Open Astronomy Picture of the Day and use the RSS link in its navigation bar for a reader, or follow the email/submission instructions if you prefer inbox delivery. If you want a second daily astronomy feed to compare, NASA Science hosts APOD's main NASA site after the move mentioned on the page.

A reasonable decision rule: choose RSS if you already use a feed reader or want to keep a searchable archive of past images; choose email if you read on a phone without a reader app and want the explanation pushed to you. Either way, verify the current subscription link on the site, since APOD notes that its email address and main hosting location are changing.

Why is the APOD website moving from apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod?

The move reflects NASA's broader consolidation of its public science content onto science.nasa.gov, not a change in what APOD offers. The page itself states: "APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod." The daily format—one image or photograph with a brief explanation by a professional astronomer—continues, as does the archive and submission process.

What this means in practice

• Readers: If you have apod.nasa.gov bookmarked, plan to update it. Both addresses may work for a transition period, but the main NASA site is science.nasa.gov/apod.
• Submitters: The APOD email address for image submissions has also changed; the page points to an APOD Submissions page for the new contact.
• Educators and developers: Anyone linking to specific APOD pages or pulling the feed should verify that links and the RSS route still resolve on the new host before a lesson or build.

Why NASA does this

NASA has been folding mission and program pages into science.nasa.gov so that audiences find astronomy content under one consistent domain, with shared navigation, accessibility and privacy notices. APOD's long-running authorship (Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell) and its NASA GSFC / Michigan Tech affiliation remain part of the listing.

A quick decision rule

Use the new science.nasa.gov/apod address for sharing, citations and bookmarks from now on. Keep the old apod.nasa.gov link only if you need to check an older archived entry that has not yet redirected. For related daily astronomy imagery, the APOD archive and calendar on the same site remain the fastest route; for mission-specific context, NASA Science hosts the consolidated material.