This guide explains the APOD data feeds provided by the SMD APOD plugin. It is written for people who need to pull APOD content into another site, mirror site, tool, feed reader, or content archive.
The goal of these feeds is to make APOD content easier to reuse. The APOD Basic feeds provide a simpler APOD-focused version of the data, while the regular WordPress RSS feed remains available for broader site-managed content.
| Need | Use |
|---|---|
| A list of APOD posts and fields for a website or app | APOD Basic JSON |
| One APOD by old APOD date code | APOD Basic single-date JSON |
| Copy-and-paste APOD Basic HTML | APOD Basic raw HTML route |
| RSS reader or XML-based import | APOD Basic RSS |
| Future scheduled APOD posts | Future APODs JSON |
| A broad WordPress feed with more site-managed markup | Existing image-article RSS feed |
Use this when another site or app needs structured APOD data. JSON is usually the best choice when a developer or import tool wants separate fields for title, date, explanation, media type, image URL, and generated HTML.
List endpoint:
<https://science.nasa.gov/wp-json/wp/v2/apod-basic>
Paginated list:
<https://science.nasa.gov/wp-json/wp/v2/apod-basic?page=1&per_page=5>
Date range:
<https://science.nasa.gov/wp-json/wp/v2/apod-basic?date_from=140901&date_to=140930>
Single APOD by legacy date:
<https://science.nasa.gov/wp-json/wp/v2/apod-basic/140918>
Supported filters:
| Parameter | What it does |
|---|---|
page |
Page number for list results. |
per_page |
Number of results per page. Capped at 25. |
date_from |
Start date using legacy YYMMDD format. |
date_to |
End date using legacy YYMMDD format. |
/apod-basic/{YYMMDD} |
Gets one APOD by legacy date code. |
Common JSON meta fields:
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
date |
APOD date in YYYY-MM-DD format. |
post_id |
WordPress post ID. |
title |
APOD post title. |
permalink |
URL of the APOD post on the site. |
media_type |
Normalized APOD media type, such as image, video, or iframe. |
explanation |
APOD explanation text. |
url |
APOD post URL. This matches the permalink. |
hdurl |
Full-size featured image URL when available. |
basic_html |
APOD Basic HTML document as a JSON string. |
basic_html_url |
Plain-text HTML source URL for easier copy/paste workflows. |
Important: JSON has to escape some characters. If you see values like \u003C, that means <. If you see \n, that means a line break. This is normal JSON behavior, not broken HTML.
For copy-and-paste HTML, use the raw HTML route instead of copying the basic_html JSON field.