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
- B. Jekhovsky
- Discovery site
- Algiers Obs.
- Discovery date
- 29 October 1924
- Named after
- David Weill
- Alternative designations
- 1924 TF · 1951 TS, 1958 XG · 1975 XC 5
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner )
- Observation arc
- 92.50 yr (33,787 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.6862 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.8245 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2554 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.39 yr (1,237 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 172.40 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 27.6 / day
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q121528
- Follows
- 1036 Ganymed
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +6.884
- Orbital period
- +1236.91566552253
Show 3 more facts
Article
1037 Davidweilla, provisional designation 1924 TF, is an asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 7 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 29 October 1924, by Benjamin Jekhowsky at Algiers Observatory in Algeria, Northern Africa.
Classification and orbit