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
- J. Comas Solà
- Discovery site
- Fabra Obs.
- Discovery date
- 30 October 1929
- Named after
- Mercedes , (discoverer's sister-in-law)
- Alternative designations
- 1929 UA · 1966 XB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) , background
- Observation arc
- 86.23 yr (31,497 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.2207 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.9111 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.5659 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.11 yr (1,501 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 171.68 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 1137 Raïssa
- Follows
- 1135 Colchis
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +25.296
- Orbital period
- +1500.410135043123
Show 3 more facts
- P6259
Article
1136 Mercedes, provisional designation 1929 UA, is a background asteroid from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 26 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 30 October 1929, by Catalan astronomer Josep Comas i Solà at the Fabra Observatory in Barcelona, Spain. The asteroid was named for the sister-in-law of the discoverer.
Orbit and classification