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
- L. Carnera
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 21 September 1901
- Pronunciation
- / t ər ˈ dʒ ɛ s t iː /
- Named after
- Trieste (Italian city)
- Alternative designations
- 1901 GU · 1948 RU 1
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer )
- Observation arc
- 115.13 yr (42,051 days)
- Aphelion
- 3.2697 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.7659 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.0178 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.24 yr (1,915 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 274.22 °
Article
478 Tergeste is a rare-type stony asteroid from the outer region of the asteroid belt, approximately 78 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 21 September 1901, by Italian astronomer Luigi Carnera at Heidelberg Observatory in southern Germany. It was named after the Italian city of Trieste.
Classification and orbit