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
- 17 May 1887
- Alternative designations
- A887 KA
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 124.91 yr (45623 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.24229 AU (485.040 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.36559 AU (353.887 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.80394 AU (419.463 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.70 yr (1715.0 d )
- Average orbital speed
- 17.79 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 53.2036 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 35.708 / day
- Inclination
- 13.3989°
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 267 Tirza
- Follows
- 265 Anna
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +109.494
- Orbital period
- +1716.793963071404
Show 4 more facts
- P720
Article
266 Aline is a fairly large main belt asteroid that was discovered by Johann Palisa on 17 May 1887 in Vienna and is thought to have been named after the daughter of astronomer Edmund Weiss. It is a dark C-type asteroid and is probably composed of primitive carbonaceous material. 266 Aline is orbiting close to a 5:2 mean motion resonance with Jupiter, which is located at 2.824 AU.
Photometric observations made in 2012 at the Organ Mesa Observatory in Las Cruces, New Mexico, produced a light curve with a period of 13.018 ± 0.001 hours and a brightness variation of 0.10 ± 0.01 in magnitude.