Picture of the Day · NASA
PK 164 +31.1: The Headphone Nebula
2026-05-27
What is a pair of headphones doing in the sky? Today’s image features the Headphone Nebula, also known as PK 164 +31.1 or Jones-Emberson 1. This planetary nebula, the remnant of a dying Sun-like star, faintly occupies an angular region of the Lynx constellation about 1/5th the diameter of the full moon. The red and blue-ish green colors trace hydrogen and oxygen atoms, respectively, that have been excited and ionized by the nebula's central white dwarf. The headphone shape, where two lobes of hydrogen puncture the inner region of oxygen, adds this object to a long list of oddly shaped nebulae. The morphology of such strange nebulae hint at the presence of a stellar or planetary companion, which can stir the material flowing out from the dying star. You can listen to Hubble and JWST sonifications of planetary nebulae through your very own headphones!
via NASA APOD
Key facts
- Discovered by
- K. Reinmuth
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 17 November 1924
- Named after
- The Geisha , (British musical)
- Alternative designations
- 1924 TE · 1932 BP, 1941 YG · 1947 NC, 1950 JF · 1974 HU 2 , A916 HB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , Flora
- Observation arc
- 92.63 yr (33,833 d )
- Aphelion
- 2.6723 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.8094 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2409 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.35 yr (1,225 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 256.96 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- The Geisha
- Followed by
- (1048) Feodosia
- Follows
- Q132850
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +10.729
- Orbital period
- +1225.838866317759
Show 4 more facts
- P65
Article
1047 Geisha, provisional designation 1924 TE, is a stony Florian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 11 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 17 November 1924, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory in southwest Germany. The asteroid was named after the British musical The Geisha.
Orbit and classification