Q156303

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

August Kopff

Discovery site

Heidelberg

Discovery date

24 June 1908

Alternative designations

1908 DG

Observation arc

107.39 yr (39224 d)

Aphelion

3.5174 AU (526.20 Gm )

Perihelion

2.6209 AU (392.08 Gm)

Semi major axis

3.0691 AU (459.13 Gm)

Orbital period sidereal

5.38 yr (1963.9 d )

Mean anomaly

135.977 °

Mean motion

0° 10 59.916 / day

Inclination

17.820°

Longitude of ascending node

232.869°

Wikidata facts

Instance of

asteroid

Followed by

Q156313

Follows

662 Newtonia

Parent body

Sun

Minor-planet group

asteroid belt

Diameter

+107.795

Orbital period

+1958.750814424437