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
- Franz Kaiser
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg
- Discovery date
- 23 February 1913
- Alternative designations
- 1913 QU
- Observation arc
- 102.98 yr (37,612 d)
- Aphelion
- 3.3678 AU (503.82 Gm )
- Perihelion
- 2.6535 AU (396.96 Gm)
- Semi major axis
- 3.0107 AU (450.39 Gm)
- Orbital period sidereal
- 5.22 yr (1,908.1 d)
- Mean anomaly
- 65.177 °
- Mean motion
- 0° 11 19.212 / day
- Inclination
- 11.219°
- Longitude of ascending node
- 64.214°
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Thomas Edison
- Followed by
- Q156873
- Follows
- Q156862
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +47.087
- Orbital period
- +1910.963867850753
Show 4 more facts
- P61
- Franz Kaiser
- P65
Article
742 Edisona is a minor planet, specifically an asteroid orbiting in the asteroid belt that was discovered by German astronomer Franz Kaiser on February 23, 1913. It was named for inventor Thomas Edison. This asteroid is orbiting 3.01 AU with a period of 5.22 years and an eccentricity of 0.119. The orbital plane is inclined at an angle of 11.2° to the plane of the ecliptic. This is a member of the dynamic Eos family of asteroids that most likely formed as the result of a collisional breakup of a parent body.
Photometric observations made during 2008 were used to produce a light curve of 742 Edisona showing a rotation period of 18.52±0.01 with a brightness variation of 0.30±0.01 in magnitude. It spans a girth of approximately 45.6 km.