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
- 6 October 1931
- Named after
- Paul Wild (Swiss astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- 1931 TN 1 · 1971 SO 1 , A915 UA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Hilda , Schubart
- Observation arc
- 101.55 yr (37,090 days)
- Aphelion
- 5.0926 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.8115 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.9520 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 7.86 yr (2,870 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 288.25 °
- Mean motion
Article
1941 Wild, provisional designation 1931 TN1, is an eccentric Hildian asteroid from the outermost region of the asteroid belt, approximately 20 kilometers in diameter.
It was discovered on 6 October 1931, by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in southern Germany. The asteroid was named for Swiss astronomer Paul Wild.