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
Small body data
254 Augusta (A886 FA)
- Orbit class
- Main-belt Asteroid
- Diameter
- 12.467 km
- Albedo
- 0.170
- Rotation period
- 5.895 h
- Absolute magnitude
- 11.840 H
- Earth MOID
- 0.915 AU
via NASA/JPL Small-Body Database
Key facts
- Discovered by
- J. Palisa
- Discovery site
- Vienna Obs.
- Discovery date
- 31 March 1886
- Pronunciation
- / ɒ ˈ ɡ ʌ s t ə /
- Named after
- Auguste von Littrow
- Alternative designations
- A886 FA
- Minor planet category
- Augusta · main-belt
- Observation arc
- 130.04 yr (47498 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.4613 AU (368.21 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 1.9281 AU (288.44 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.1947 AU (328.32 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.25 yr (1187.5 d )
- Average orbital speed
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Auguste von Littrow
- Followed by
- Q110370
- Follows
- Q149417
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +12.467
- Orbital period
- +1187.463805901303
Show 5 more facts
- P65
Article
254 Augusta is a main-belt asteroid, discovered on 31 March 1886 by astronomer Johann Palisa at Vienna Observatory, Austria. The stony S-type asteroid measures about 12 kilometers in diameter. It is the first-numbered member of the Augusta family, after which the small Asteroid family and subgroup of the main-belt has been named. Augusta was named after the German–Austrian writer Auguste von Littrow (1819–1890), widow of astronomer Carl Ludwig von Littrow, who was a former director of the Vienna Observatory.
References