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
- J. Palisa
- Discovery site
- Austrian Naval Obs.
- Discovery date
- 6 November 1877
- Pronunciation
- / b ɛ ˈ l ɪ s ə n ə /
- Named after
- Bēlēsama , (Celtic mythology)
Article
178 Belisana is a stony background asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 38 kilometers (24 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 6 November 1877, by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa at the Austrian Naval Observatory in today's Croatia. The S-type asteroid has a rotation period of 12.32 hours and a rather spherical shape. It was named after the Celtic goddess Belisama (Belisana).
Orbit and classification