APOD: 2026 May 27 – PK 164 +31.1: The Headphone Nebula
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2026 May 27
PK 164 +31.1: The Headphone Nebula
Image Credit & Copyright:
Bernard Miller
Text:
Keighley Rockcliffe
(NASA
GSFC,
UMBC CSST,
CRESST II)
Explanation:
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!
Tomorrow’s picture: gaze into a Crystal Ball
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Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
NASA Official: Amber Straughn
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