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
- Anton Staus
- Discovery date
- 1 September 1892
- Named after
- Carl Robert Osten-Sacken
- Alternative designations
- 1892 C
- Minor planet category
- Main belt
- Observation arc
- 123.58 yr (45137 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.9014 AU (434.04 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.04926 AU (306.565 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.47530 AU (370.300 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.89 yr (1422.5 d )
- Average orbital speed
- 18.93 km/s
- Mean anomaly
- 355.460 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 15 11.095 / day
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Carl Robert Osten-Sacken
- Followed by
- 336 Lacadiera
- Follows
- 334 Chicago
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +97.109
- Orbital period
- +1423.425810175242
Show 4 more facts
- P61
- Anton Staus
- P65
Article
335 Roberta is a large main belt asteroid. It was discovered on 1 September 1892, by German astronomer Anton Staus at Heidelberg Observatory. Roberta was the 12th asteroid that was discovered using photography, and the only asteroid discovery made by Staus.
Photometric observations of this asteroid from multiple sites during 2007 gave a light curve with a period of 12.054 ± 0.003 hours and a brightness variation of 0.13 ± 0.02 in magnitude. This agrees with a result reported in 1992, but differs from period estimates of 8.03 hours and 4.349 reported in 1987 and 2001, respectively.