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
- G. N. Neujmin
- Discovery site
- Simeis
- Discovery date
- 25 August 1916
- Pronunciation
- / æ k ə ˈ d iː m i ə /
- Alternative designations
- 1916 ZY
- Observation arc
- 101.67 yr (37136 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.8379 AU (424.54 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.3219 AU (347.35 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 2.5799 AU (385.95 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.14 yr (1513.6 d )
- Mean anomaly
- 353.330 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 14 16.26 / day
- Inclination
- 8.2839°
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 830 Petropolitana
- Follows
- Q157312
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +42.685
- Orbital period
- +1514.064715236303
Show 3 more facts
- P6259
Article
829 Academia is a minor planet orbiting the Sun. The asteroid is roughly 44 km in diameter and has a low albedo. Photometric measurements of the asteroid made in 2005 at the Palmer Divide Observatory showed a light curve with a period of 7.891 ± 0.005 hours and a brightness variation of 0.44 ± 0.02 in magnitude.
References