apod.nasa.gov Website Overview & Technology Report
🤖 AI Summary
We performed a comprehensive analysis of apod.nasa.gov on 2026-06-27. The website returned an HTTP 200 status code with a server response time of 7995ms. The page is served over HTTP/1.1 protocol, however no compression (Gzip or Brotli) is enabled, which means the page is transferred at its full uncompressed size. The total page weight is 4 KB.
Warning: The website does not have a valid SSL certificate. Visitors may see security warnings in their browser, and data transmitted to and from this website is not encrypted.
The security headers analysis reveals a score of 55/100 (moderate). The following security headers are properly configured: Content-Security-Policy, Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS), and X-Frame-Options. However, the site is missing X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy, and Permissions-Policy, which could expose the site and its users to cross-site scripting (XSS), clickjacking, and other web-based attacks.
Based on our comprehensive analysis of domain age, SSL configuration, email authentication, security headers, and blacklist status, apod.nasa.gov receives an overall trust score of 62/100, classified as "Likely Safe".
HTTP Response
Status200 OK
Response Time7995ms
ProtocolHTTP/1.1
Page Size4 KB
CompressionNone
Compression SavingsN/A
CDNNo
ServerWebServer/1.0
Total Requests37
3rd Party Domains12
Redirect1 hop(s)
Detected Technologies (0)
Security Headers
✓
Content-Security-Policy
Set ✓
✓
Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS)
Set ✓
✗
X-Content-Type-Options
Not set
✗
Referrer-Policy
Not set
✗
Permissions-Policy
Not set
SSL Certificate
IssuerLet's Encrypt
Issuer FullcountryName=US, organizationName=Let's Encrypt, commonName=R12
SubjectcommonName=asd.gsfc.nasa.gov
Type—
TLS VersionTLS 1.2
Cipher SuiteECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256
Algorithm—
Issued—
Expires— (? days)
SANs—
apod.nasa.gov Trust Score & Safety Analysis
🤖 AI Summary
After conducting a thorough safety and legitimacy analysis, apod.nasa.gov receives a trust score of 62/100, which places it in the "Likely Safe" category. This score is calculated by evaluating multiple factors including SSL certificate validity, domain registration history, email authentication protocols, security header configuration, and blacklist status across major threat intelligence databases.
The analysis identified several positive trust signals: a valid HTTPS connection protecting data in transit and HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) enforcement preventing protocol downgrade attacks.
Areas of concern include: missing Referrer-Policy, potentially leaking URL information to third parties, the domain's WHOIS information is hidden behind a privacy service, making it harder to verify the owner's identity, and DNSSEC is not enabled, leaving DNS queries vulnerable to spoofing attacks. While these issues don't necessarily indicate malicious intent, they represent areas where the website's security posture could be improved.
We checked apod.nasa.gov against 8 major blacklist databases including Google Safe Browsing, Phishtank, Urlhaus, Openphish, Dnsfilter, Spamhaus Dbl, Surbl, and Virustotal. The domain passed all 8 checks with a clean status, meaning it has not been flagged for phishing, malware distribution, spam, or other malicious activities by any of the tested threat intelligence providers.
Trust Signals
✅ Valid HTTPS
✅ HSTS enabled
⚠️ DNSSEC not enabled
✅ Robots.txt found
⚠️ Missing Referrer-Policy
Blacklist Checks (8/8 clean)
✓
Google Safe Browsing
clean
✓
Phishtank
clean
✓
Urlhaus
clean
✓
Openphish
clean
✓
Dnsfilter
clean
✓
Spamhaus Dbl
clean
✓
Surbl
clean
✓
Virustotal
clean
apod.nasa.gov Technology Stack & Detected Technologies
🤖 AI Summary
Our automated technology detection scan was unable to identify specific technologies on apod.nasa.gov. This could indicate that the site uses server-side rendering without client-side technology fingerprints, employs aggressive code obfuscation, or uses custom-built solutions that don't match known technology signatures.
apod.nasa.gov Performance, Speed & Core Web Vitals
🤖 AI Summary
apod.nasa.gov delivers its homepage in 7995ms (server response time), which is considered slow by industry standards. The total page weight is 4 KB, and we detected 37 resource requests loading assets from 12 third-party domains. A high number of third-party domains can significantly impact page load time due to additional DNS lookups and TLS handshakes required for each domain.
No compression is currently enabled on apod.nasa.gov. Enabling Brotli or Gzip compression could reduce page size by 60-80% for text-based assets (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), significantly improving load times and reducing bandwidth costs. This is one of the simplest and most impactful performance optimizations available.
Asset minification status: 0 out of 0 CSS files and 0 out of 2 JavaScript files are minified. Minifying the remaining 2 unminified file(s) could further reduce page weight by 10-30% for those assets. Minification is a best practice that reduces download sizes without affecting functionality.
From an environmental perspective, each page view of apod.nasa.gov produces approximately 0.0g of CO₂, earning a carbon rating of A. This places the website among the cleanest on the web, demonstrating efficient use of server resources and optimized content delivery. For reference, the average web page produces about 0.5g of CO₂ per page view. The page weight of 4 KB is the primary factor in this calculation.
Core Web Vitals data from the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) is not available for apod.nasa.gov. This typically means the site doesn't have enough real-world Chrome user traffic to generate statistically significant field data, or the domain is not included in the CrUX dataset. Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, CLS) are important Google ranking factors that measure real user experience.
Core Web Vitals data not available
Requires CrUX API key configuration
Carbon Footprint
CO₂ per page view0.0g
RatingA
Page Weight & Optimization
HTML Size4 KB
CompressionNone
Compression SavingsN/A
CDNNo
Total Requests37
3rd Party Domains12
CSS Minified0/0
JS Minified0/2
apod.nasa.gov DNS Records, Email Authentication & Domain Registration
🤖 AI Summary
apod.nasa.gov resolves to the IPv4 address 129.164.179.22 and also supports IPv6 (2001:4d0:2310:150::22), demonstrating modern network infrastructure readiness. The domain has 1 A record(s) configured.
SPF is not configured, meaning any server could potentially send emails pretending to be from this domain. This is a significant email security concern. DMARC is not configured, leaving the domain vulnerable to email spoofing and phishing attacks that impersonate this domain. DKIM was not detected. Without DKIM, recipients cannot cryptographically verify that emails claiming to be from this domain are authentic.
DNSSEC is not enabled for apod.nasa.gov. While not critical for most websites, DNSSEC adds an important security layer by ensuring DNS responses haven't been tampered with during transit. Enabling DNSSEC is recommended for domains handling sensitive data or financial transactions.
Email & Authentication
MX Provider—
Registrar—
Organisation—
Country—
Contact—
Registered—
Expires—
Domain Age—
IPv6 SupportYes ✓
apod.nasa.gov Page Content, Images & Accessibility
🤖 AI Summary
The homepage of apod.nasa.gov contains 256 words of visible text content. This is a relatively short page — adding more descriptive content could improve search engine visibility. The page is structured with 0 H2 headings, 0 H3 headings, 0 H4 headings.
The page includes 1 image. All images have proper alt text attributes ✓, which is excellent for both accessibility (screen readers) and SEO (search engines can understand image content).
The link structure consists of 13 internal links pointing to other pages on the same domain and 23 external links pointing to third-party websites. There are 2 external JavaScript files, 0 CSS stylesheets, and 0 iframes on the page.
The site implements the following web standards and features: robots.txt (controls search engine crawling behavior).
Notable missing features: XML Sitemap and Schema.org structured data. Adding these could improve search engine discoverability and rich result eligibility.
We detected the following payment methods accepted on apod.nasa.gov: Discover. Offering multiple payment options including credit cards and digital wallets improves customer trust and can increase conversion rates.
Content Structure
H1Astronomy Picture of the Day
H2 Tags0
H3 Tags0
H4 Tags0
H5 Tags0
H6 Tags0
Internal Links13
External Links23
Assets & Features
JavaScript Files2
JS Minified0/2
CSS Files0
CSS Minified0/0
Iframes0
Images1
Missing Alt0
SitemapNo
Robots.txtYes ✓
PWANo
AMPNo
RSS FeedNo
Payment Methods Detected
apod.nasa.gov SEO Analysis, Meta Tags & Open Graph
🤖 AI Summary
The title tag for apod.nasa.gov is good at 28 characters: "Astronomy Picture of the Day". The length is acceptable, though it may be slightly truncated in some search result displays.
The meta description is 107 characters (well-optimized): "A different astronomy and space science
related image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.". Google typically displays up to 155-160 characters of the meta description in search results. A compelling meta description with a clear call-to-action can significantly improve click-through rates from search results.
The page language is declared as en.
No Open Graph tags are configured. When someone shares a link to apod.nasa.gov on social media, the platform will have to guess the title, description, and image — often producing unattractive or inaccurate previews. Adding OG tags is essential for social media marketing.
The meta keywords tag contains 2 terms including mars rover and jezero crater. Note: Google has officially confirmed that it does not use the meta keywords tag as a ranking signal. However, some other search engines (Bing, Yandex) may still reference it.
Google SERP Preview
Astronomy Picture of the Day
https://apod.nasa.gov
A different astronomy and space science
related image is featured each day, along with a brief explanation.
Meta Tags
TitleAstronomy Picture of the Day...
Title Length28 chars
Meta Desc Length107 chars
H1Astronomy Picture of the Day
Languageen
Canonical—
Meta Robotsnot set
Meta Keywordsmars rover, jezero crater
Schema.org & Social
Schema Types—
OG Type—
OG ImageNot set
Twitter Card—
FaviconNot set