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
- Franz Kaiser
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg
- Discovery date
- 29 September 1913
- Pronunciation
- / m ə ˈ ɡ ʌ n ʃ i ə /
- Alternative designations
- 1913 SW
- Observation arc
- 107.39 yr (39224 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.3100 AU (495.17 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.7272 AU (407.98 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.0186 AU (451.58 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.24 yr (1915.6 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 154.498 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 16.548 / day
- Inclination
- 10.090°
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Mainz
- Followed by
- 767 Bondia
- Follows
- Q156995
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +41.044
- Orbital period
- +1915.870356997216
Show 4 more facts
Article
766 Moguntia is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. It was discovered on 29 September 1913 at Heidelberg by German astronomer Franz Kaiser, and is named after Mainz, ancient Moguntiacum. This object is a member of the same dynamic asteroid group as 221 Eos, the Eos family. It is orbiting at a distance of 3.02 AU from the Sun with a period of 5.24 years and an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.097. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 10.1° to the plane of the ecliptic.
This is an M-type asteroid with a near infrared spectrum that is similar to CO/CV meteorites. An absorption feature at around 1 μm suggests the presence of olivine on the surface. 766 Moguntia spans approximately 31.2 km in girth and is spinning with a rotation period of 4.82 hours.