The Astronomy Picture of the Day, abbreviated APOD, is an astronomy-related picture published by NASA every day. It can be accessed at https://science.nasa.gov/apod/.
Format
The APOD, as its name suggests, is usually a static image. Sometimes, the image has original and annotated versions, and the version can be switched using 2 buttons. On the old website, the annotated version would show by default, and hovering over the image would reveal the original version.
Occasionally, the APOD is a video instead of an image. These videos are uploaded to the Youtube channel APOD Videos. The last time the APOD was a video was on 1 April 2025, almost a year and a half ago.[5]
Editors
The APOD is a service of the goddard-space-flight-center, nasa-science-activation, and michigan-tech. It is currently edited by Robert Nemiroff, Jerry Bonnell, Cecilia Chirenti, and Keighley Rockcliffe.[4]
History
The original website, now obsolete, is at https://apod.nasa.gov/. The first picture was posted on 16 June 1995.
As of 26 September 2026, there has been a picture every day since 20 June 1995, except on 10 June 2020,[3] when #ShutDownSTEM happened.
Migration
On 22 August 2026, it was announced that the website would be moving to https://science.nasa.gov/apod/. On 28 September, the APOD was set to cosmic latte, but with a notice about the migration overlaid on the old website. The migration was then completed on the 29th.
The new page, a part of the main NASA website, features a more modern design and is part of NASA's "Image Articles". The old website is still online, but frozen at the 29 September image.