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
- G. Shajn
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 16 August 1925
- Named after
- Ukraine (former Soviet state)
- Alternative designations
- 1925 QA · 1936 QH
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner )
- Observation arc
- 91.69 yr (33,488 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.8870 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.8702 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.3786 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.67 yr (1,340 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 22.534 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 16 7.32 / day
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Ukraine
- Followed by
- Q142704
- Follows
- 1708 Pólit
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +9.444
- Orbital period
- +1341.049075669822
- Image
- 1709Ukraina (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 4 more facts
Article
1709 Ukraina, provisional designation 1925 QA, is a stony asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 9 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 16 August 1925, by Soviet astronomer Grigory Shajn at Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. It was named in honor of Ukraine.
Orbit and classification