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. Neujmin
- Discovery site
- Simeiz Obs.
- Discovery date
- 5 September 1915
- Named after
- Inna Nikolaevna Leman-Balanovskaya, (Russian astronomer)
- Alternative designations
- A915 RQ · 1932 WJ, 1934 AC · 1934 CM 1 , 1934 CV · 1937 RD, 1959 TJ · A905 YA, 1915 XS · 1905 YA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , Themis
- Observation arc
- 114.10 yr (41,676 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.6160 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.6039 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.1100 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.48 yr (2,003 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 56.581 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Inna Nikolaevna Leman-Balanovskaja
- Followed by
- 849 Ara
- Follows
- 847 Agnia
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +33.027
- Orbital period
- +2003.246336790647
Show 3 more facts
- P65
Article
848 Inna (prov. designation: A915 RQ or 1915 XS) is a carbonaceous Themistian asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt. It was discovered on 5 September 1915, by astronomer Grigory Neujmin at the Simeiz Observatory on the Crimean peninsula. The C-type asteroid measures approximately 33 kilometers (21 miles) in diameter, while its rotation period remains unknown. It was named after Russian astronomer Inna Nikolaevna Leman-Balanovskaya (1881–1945).
Orbit and classification