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
- 27 August 1922
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ ɡ r iː t i ə /
- Named after
- Greta, sister-in-law of astronomer Albrecht Kahrstedt
Article
984 Gretia /ˈɡriːtiə/ is a stony background asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 32 kilometers (20 miles) in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory on 27 August 1922 and given the provisional designation 1922 MH. The asteroid was named after Greta, sister-in-law of ARI-astronomer Albrecht Kahrstedt.
Orbit and classification