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
- M. F. Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 19 March 1931
- Named after
- Mally Wolf, (discoverer's daughter-in-law)
- Alternative designations
- 1931 FD
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle )
- Observation arc
- 86.30 yr (31,520 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.0682 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.1698 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.6190 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.24 yr (1,548 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 104.44 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 13 57 / day
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q136820
- Follows
- Q136796
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +13.159
- Orbital period
- +1546.392640425466
- Image
- Minor planet (1179) Mally (eso8611a).jpg
Show 3 more facts
Article
1179 Mally, provisional designation 1931 FD, is an asteroid and long-lost minor planet from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately 13 kilometers in diameter. Discovered by Max Wolf in 1931, the asteroid was lost until its rediscovery in 1986. The discoverer named it after his daughter-in-law, Mally Wolf.
Discovery and rediscovery