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
- M. F. Wolf
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 30 November 1918
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ b uː d ə /
- Named after
- Buda , part of the Hungarian , city of Budapest
- Alternative designations
- A918 WD · 1963 ME, 1918 EX
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , background
- Observation arc
- 101.18 yr (36,957 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.8390 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.1072 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.4731 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.89 yr (1,421 d)
- Mean anomaly
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- 909 Ulla
- Follows
- Q157807
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +30.749
- Orbital period
- +1421.169711585395
- Image
- 000908-asteroid shape model (908) Buda.png
Show 4 more facts
Article
908 Buda (prov. designation: A918 WD or 1918 EX) is a background asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 30 kilometers (19 miles) in diameter. It was discovered by German astronomer Max Wolf at the Heidelberg Observatory on 30 November 1918. The uncommon L-type asteroid has a rotation period of 14.6 hours. It was named after Buda, the smaller part of the Hungarian city of Budapest.
Orbit and classification