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. Schwassmann
- Discovery site
- Bergedorf Obs.
- Discovery date
- 17 March 1931
- Named after
- Bergedorf Spectral Catalogue, ( astronomical catalog )
- Alternative designations
- 1931 FE
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , Phocaea
- Observation arc
- 85.77 yr (31,328 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.9762 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.7561 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.3661 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.64 yr (1,329 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 297.62 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 1193 Africa
- Follows
- Q136889
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +7.377
- Orbital period
- +1328.290555021968
- Image
- 001192-asteroid shape model (1192) Prisma.png
Show 3 more facts
Article
1192 Prisma, provisional designation 1931 FE, is an elongated Phocaea asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 7 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomer Friedrich Schwassmann at the Bergedorf Observatory in Hamburg on 17 March 1931. The asteroid was named after the Bergedorf Spectral Catalogue, an astronomical catalog.
Classification and orbit