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
- 18 October 1931
- Pronunciation
- / ɪ ˈ l aɪ n ə /
- Named after
- Elȳna ( Kobresia ) , ( flowering plant )
- Alternative designations
- 1931 UF · 1933 BN
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Eos
- Observation arc
- 85.63 yr (31,277 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.2788 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.7526 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.0157 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.24 yr (1,913 days)
- Mean anomaly
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q137212
- Follows
- Q137199
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +22.876
- Orbital period
- +1909.939795728274
Show 4 more facts
Article
1234 Elyna /ɪˈlaɪnə/, provisional designation 1931 UF, is an Eoan asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 25 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 18 October 1931, by astronomer Karl Reinmuth at the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory. The asteroid was named after the flowering plant Elyna (Kobresia; bog sedges).
Orbit and classification