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
- Max Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Observatory
- Discovery date
- 21 November 1914
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ r uː θ /
- Alternative designations
- 1914 VT
- Observation arc
- 135.93 yr (49647 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.1230 AU (467.19 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.9062 AU (434.76 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.0146 AU (450.98 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.23 yr (1,911.7 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 327.100 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 17.88 / day
- Inclination
- 9.2386°
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q157147
- Follows
- Q157138
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +43.19
- Orbital period
- +1913.44418979329
Show 4 more facts
Article
798 Ruth is a minor planet orbiting the Sun that was discovered by the German astronomer Max Wolf on 21 November 1914. It may have been named after the biblical character Ruth. This main belt asteroid has an orbital period of 5.23 years and is orbiting at a distance of 3.0 AU from the Sun with an eccentricity (ovalness) of 0.036. The orbital plane is tilted by 9.2° from the plane of the ecliptic.
This is a member of the dynamic Eos family of asteroids that most likely formed as the result of a collisional breakup of a parent body. It is an M-type (metallic) asteroid that displays a significant component of the mineral olivine in its spectrum. 798 Ruth spans 43.19±2.9 km and rotates on its axis once every 8.55 h.