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
- J. Palisa
- Discovery site
- Vienna Obs.
- Discovery date
- 23 March 1920
- Named after
- Herbert Hoover , (U.S. Secretary of Commerce)
- Alternative designations
- A920 FC · 1920 GV, A909 GG · 1909 GG, A912 BD · 1912 BD, A913 MD · 1913 MD, A914 TF · 1914 TF, 1950 HQ
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( inner ) , background
- Observation arc
- 99.79 yr (36,448 d)
- Aphelion
- 2.6386 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.2002 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.4194 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.76 yr (1,375 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 331.44 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q660098
- Follows
- Q158074
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +58.978
- Orbital period
- +1374.446769430936
Show 4 more facts
- P720
Article
932 Hooveria (prov. designation: A920 FC or 1920 GV) is a dark background asteroid, approximately 59 kilometers (37 miles) in diameter, located in the inner region of the asteroid belt. It was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa at the Vienna Observatory on 23 March 1920. The carbonaceous C-type asteroid (Ch) has a long rotation period of 78.4 hours. It was named after then-Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover (1874–1964), who later became president of the United States.
Orbit and classification