APOD

INTRODUCTION

I chose NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) because, after the Artemis II lunar flyby, I found myself moved by how small and beautiful our world is. I’ve never been too deep into astronomy, but exploring this dataset felt like a way to connect with that. Using the APOD API, I collected 100 entries to explore the kinds of images, themes, and explanations NASA shares with the public. This project is a simple attempt to understand how we communicate the universe and to appreciate the perspective it gives us.

Data Source

Data Description

For this project, I collected 100 entries from NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) API. Each APOD entry includes a date, a title, a written explanation, and either an image or a video chosen by NASA for that day. The dataset I created contains one row per APOD entry, giving me a small but diverse sample of astronomy content.

The data was retrieved directly from NASA’s public API and saved as a CSV file so that anyone can replicate or extend the analysis. The variables included in the dataset are described in the table below.

Variable	Description
DATE	The calendar date of the APOD entry (YYYY-MM-DD).
TITLE	The title NASA assigned the video/image.
EXPLANATION	A written description explaining the content.
MEDIA_TYPE	Whether it is an image or video.
URL	Link to image or video (standard definition).
HDURL	Link to the high definition IMAGES only.
COPYRIGHT	The author of the work.
IS_IMAGE	Whether it is an image or not (logical).
SERIVICE VERSION	The current iteration of the API endpoint used to fetch daily space images and data

Summary Statistics

Below you can see a brief overview of the data. This will help show the basic structure of the data.

Basic Summary of All Variables

      ...1             date            explanation           hdurl          
 Min.   :  1.00   Min.   :1995-07-05   Length:100         Length:100        
 1st Qu.: 25.75   1st Qu.:2004-09-12   Class :character   Class :character  
 Median : 50.50   Median :2010-11-05   Mode  :character   Mode  :character  
 Mean   : 50.50   Mean   :2011-10-13                                        
 3rd Qu.: 75.25   3rd Qu.:2019-10-28                                        
 Max.   :100.00   Max.   :2026-02-23                                        
  media_type        service_version       title               url           
 Length:100         Length:100         Length:100         Length:100        
 Class :character   Class :character   Class :character   Class :character  
 Mode  :character   Mode  :character   Mode  :character   Mode  :character  
                                                                            
                                                                            
                                                                            
  copyright          is_image      
 Length:100         Mode :logical  
 Class :character   FALSE:4        
 Mode  :character   TRUE :96       
                                   
                                   
                                   

Media Type Distribution

This shows us how many entries are images vs how many are videos:

Media Type	Number
Image	96
Video	4

Length of Explanation

Thie shows us about how long NASAs explanations are in character count.

Minimum	Mean	Max
352	885	1440

DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS

Visual 1: Media Type Distribution (Images vs. Videos)

Visual 2: Explanation Length Distribution

This shows how long NASAs descriptions usually are.

Visual 3: APOD Entries by Year

This plot shows which years appear most often, since we have a random sample of 100.

Visual 4: Top 10 Longest Explanations

This is a great descriptive visual and looks impressive in a blog post.

Visual 5: APOD Titles with “Comet” or “Asteroid” in the Explanation

SECONDARY DATASET

Visual 1: Histogram of Meteorite Masses

Visual 2: Meteor Landings By Year (From 1990 to 2020)

Comparison to APOD and Discussion

The APOD dataset focuses on images and explanations from NASA. Each entry includes a date, a title, a detailed written explanation, and a media type (image or video). The emphasis is focused more visually. APOD explains what we are seeing and why it matters. Because the dataset is made daily, it shows NASA’s choices about which events are worth highlighting.

The Meteorite Landings dataset has evidence of objects that have reached Earth. Instead of photos, it has attributes such as the name, mass, classification, and year it was discovered.

Aside from their differences, the two datasets complement each other as the APOD shows space as observed from Earth or space telescopes and the Meteorite Landings represents space as it physically arrives on Earth.

APOD visualizations focus on media type and content, while meteorite dataset visualizations shows quantitative pattern.

Analyzing the APOD dataset with the Meteorite Landings shows how different types of data serve different purposes. The APOD dataset is more narrative‑drive and the Meteorite Landings dataset is more numeric.

CONCLUSION

These datasets show that space science is not only about observing the universe but also about understanding how it interacts with Earth. The combination of storytelling and data‑driven sources gives us a bigger picture of NASA’s work and the many ways we can study and interpret space.