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
- Auguste Charlois
- Discovery date
- 8 December 1898
- Pronunciation
- French: [ batildᵊ ]
- Named after
- unknown ( Bathilde )
- Alternative designations
- 1898 ED
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 117.20 yr (42808 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.0266 AU (452.77 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.58642 AU (386.923 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.80651 AU (419.848 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.70 yr (1717.3 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 348.249 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 12 34.668 / day
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q154016
- Follows
- Q153948
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +65.131
- Orbital period
- +1716.747654834199
- Image
- 441Bathilde (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 4 more facts
Article
441 Bathilde is a large main belt asteroid that was discovered by French astronomer Auguste Charlois on 8 December 1898 in Nice. 441 Bathilde is orbiting close to a 5:2 mean motion resonance with Jupiter, which is located at 2.824 AU.
10μ radiometric data collected from Kitt Peak in 1975 gave a diameter estimate of 64 km.