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
- A. Deutsch
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 5 July 1929
- Named after
- Rarahu (based on a French novel by Pierre Loti )
- Alternative designations
- 1929 NA · A924 OA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Eos
- Observation arc
- 87.98 yr (32,135 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.3477 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.6909 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.0193 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.25 yr (1,916 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 278.28 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 16.44 / day
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- small Solar System body
- Followed by
- 1149 Volga
- Follows
- 1147 Stavropolis
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +27.512
- Orbital period
- +1918.126678567834
- Image
- 1148Rarahu (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 4 more facts
Article
1148 Rarahu, provisional designation 1929 NA and previously also known as 1148 Raraju, is an Eoan asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 32 kilometers in diameter. Discovered by Alexander Deutsch at the Simeiz Observatory in 1929, the asteroid's name was taken from a French novel by Pierre Loti.
Discovery