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
- Y. Väisälä
- Discovery site
- Turku Obs.
- Discovery date
- 8 March 1938
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ f ɛ n i ə /
- Named after
- Finland (Scandinavian country)
- Alternative designations
- 1938 ED 1
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , Hungaria · background
- Observation arc
- 79.50 yr (29,037 days)
- Aphelion
- 1.9502 AU
- Perihelion
- 1.8438 AU
- Semi major axis
- 1.8970 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 2.61 yr (954 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 72.856 °
Article
1453 Fennia, provisional designation 1938 ED1, is a stony Hungaria asteroid and synchronous binary system from the innermost regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 7 kilometers in diameter. Discovered by Yrjö Väisälä at the Turku Observatory in 1938, the asteroid was later named after the Nordic country of Finland. The system's minor-planet moon was discovered in 2007. It has a derived diameter of 1.95 kilometers and is orbiting its primary every 23.55 hours.
Discovery