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
- K. Reinmuth
- Discovery site
- Heidelberg Obs.
- Discovery date
- 8 January 1930
- Named after
- Johann Palisa , and Max Wolf , ( minor planet discoverers )
- Alternative designations
- 1930 AD · 1926 AK, 1942 GE 1 · 1942 GY, 1969 MD · A924 QA
- Minor planet category
- main-belt · Vestian
- Observation arc
- 92.61 yr (33,825 days)
- Aphelion
- 2.5288 AU
- Perihelion
- 2.3256 AU
- Semi major axis
- 2.4272 AU
- Orbital period sidereal
- 3.78 yr (1,381 days)
- Mean anomaly
- 356.07 °
- Mean motion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- asteroid
- Named after
- Johann Palisa
- Followed by
- Q136548
- Follows
- Q136531
- Parent body
- Sun
- Minor-planet group
- asteroid belt
- Diameter
- +17.13
- Orbital period
- +1381.149300328013
Show 4 more facts
- P65
Article
1152 Pawona, provisional designation 1930 AD, is a stony Vestian asteroid from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 16 kilometers in diameter. Discovered by Karl Reinmuth at Heidelberg Observatory in 1930, the asteroid was named in honor of astronomers Johann Palisa and Max Wolf.
Discovery