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
- B. Jekhovsky
- Discovery site
- Algiers Obs.
- Discovery date
- 27 March 1922
- Named after
- Benjamin Jekhowsky Jr. , (discoverer's son)
- Alternative designations
- A922 FD · A910 AB, 1922 LU · 1910 AB
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( outer ) , background
- Observation arc
- 109.34 yr (39,935 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.5276 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.8744 AU
- Semi major axis
- 3.2010 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.73 yr (2,092 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 43.757 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Followed by
- Q158409
- Follows
- Q158404
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +83.195
- Orbital period
- +2083.27934079254
Show 4 more facts
Article
976 Benjamina (prov. designation: A922 FD or 1922 LU) is a dark background asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 81 kilometers (50 miles) in diameter. It was discovered on 27 March 1922, by Russian-French astronomer Benjamin Jekhowsky at the Algiers Observatory in North Africa. The large X/D-type asteroid has a rotation period of 9.7 hours and is likely regular in shape. It was named after the discoverer's son.
Orbit and classification