# Astronomy Picture of the Day API

> Astronomy Picture of the Day API is a paid API for AI agents from x402.forgemesh.io, paid per call via x402, $0.002/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-15).

Returns NASA's featured astronomy image or video for a given date, including title, explanation, media type, and full-resolution URL as structured JSON

## Facts

- Endpoint: POST https://x402.forgemesh.io/astronomy-picture-of-day
- Price: $0.002/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-15
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-api-fceff74a
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_SrS9TlHB4ppzFX9impA-r

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability astronomy-picture-of-the-day-api-fceff74a -d '<json body>'
```

Example prompt: Can you pull up the NASA astronomy picture of the day for July 20, 1969 — give me the title, the explanation, and the full-resolution image URL?

## When to prefer this

Choose this endpoint when you need structured, daily-granularity NASA astronomy content including the featured image or video URL, title, and plain-language explanation — ideal for daily digest bots, content schedulers, space-education feeds, or novelty apps needing historical APOD data back to 1995.

## Known failure modes

- Invalid date format returns an error (must be YYYY-MM-DD)
- Dates before mid-1995 are out of range and will return no result
- Future dates beyond today are unsupported
- Network or upstream NASA API unavailability may return a 5xx error
- Payment failure (x402) prevents access to the endpoint

## How this service works

Astronomy picture of the day API: one featured space image or video per day — title, plain-language explanation, media type, and full-resolution URL — as structured JSON. Defaults to today's picture; pass an optional date (YYYY-MM-DD) for any day back to mid-1995. Use for daily-digest bots, content-scheduling agents, and space-education or novelty feeds. Cached 1 hour.

## Output

A JSON object containing the title of the featured picture, a plain-language explanation, the media type (image or video), and the full-resolution URL for the requested date (defaulting to today if no date is provided).

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "properties": {
  "date": {
   "type": "string",
   "description": "Date to fetch, YYYY-MM-DD. Omit for today's picture."
  }
 }
}
```

## Response schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "json",
 "example": {
  "data": {
   "url": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2607/ngc300_1024.jpg",
   "date": "2026-07-16",
   "hdurl": "https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2607/ngc300.jpg",
   "title": "NGC 300: A Cosmic Gemstone with Stars and Gas Clouds",
   "media_type": "image",
   "explanation": "This sparkling, colorful gemstone is a spiral galaxy, NGC 300..."
  },
  "attribution": "NASA APOD (public domain)"
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-api-fceff74a/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from x402.forgemesh.io](https://www.zero.xyz/host/x402.forgemesh.io/llms.txt)