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
- Johann Palisa
- Discovery date
- 6 February 1880
- Pronunciation
- / m ɪ ˈ d iː ə /
- Named after
- Medea
- Alternative designations
- A880 CA, 1930 FW
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 136.05 yr (49694 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.4422 AU (514.95 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.78929 AU (417.272 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.11575 AU (466.110 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.50 yr (2008.8 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 28.1280 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 10 45.156 / day
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Medea
- Followed by
- Q147695
- Follows
- 211 Isolda
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +136.12
- Orbital period
- +2010.325466477576
Show 5 more facts
- P65
Article
212 Medea is a main-belt asteroid that was discovered by Johann Palisa on February 6, 1880, in Pola, and was named after Medea, a figure in Greek mythology.
Photometric observations of this asteroid in 1987 gave an incomplete lightcurve with a period of 10.12 ± 0.06 hours and a brightness variation of 0.13 in magnitude. This object has a spectrum that matches a DCX: classification. Lightcurve data has also been recorded by observers at the Antelope Hill Observatory (H09), which has been designated as an official observatory by the Minor Planet Center. They found a period of 10.283 hours with a brightness variation of 0.08 magnitude.