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
- R. Luther
- Discovery site
- Düsseldorf Obs.
- Discovery date
- 13 August 1861
- Pronunciation
- / ˈ n aɪ ə b iː /
- Named after
- Νιόβη Niobē (Greek mythology)
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · ( middle ) , Gallia
- Adjectives
- Niobean / n aɪ ə ˈ b iː ə n /
- Observation arc
- 154.10 yr (56,286 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.2348 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.2790 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.7569 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 4.58 yr (1,672 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 178.02 °
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Niobe
- Followed by
- 72 Feronia
- Follows
- 70 Panopaea
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +83.42
- Orbital period
- +1669.928089859961
- Image
- 71Niobe (Lightcurve Inversion).png
Show 4 more facts
Article
71 Niobe is a stony Gallia asteroid and relatively slow rotator from the central regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 90 kilometers (56 miles) in diameter. It was discovered by the German astronomer Robert Luther on 13 August 1861, and named after Niobe, a character in Greek mythology. In 1861, the brightness of this asteroid was shown to vary by astronomer Friedrich Tietjen.
Description