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
- 3 March 1927
- Named after
- unknown
- Alternative designations
- 1927 EA · A915 RD
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner )
- Observation arc
- 90.33 yr (32,993 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.5261 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.9930 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.2596 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.40 yr (1,241 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 328.01 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 17 24.72 / day
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q136841
- Follows
- 1181 Lilith
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +14.162
- Orbital period
- +1240.265892428922
- Image
- 001182-asteroid shape model (1182) Ilona.png
Show 3 more facts
Article
1182 Ilona, provisional designation 1927 EA, is a stony asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 14 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg Observatory on 3 March 1927, and later named Ilona. Any reference to its name is unknown.
Classification and orbit