                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2026 May 27
    A bubble of gas occupies the center of the image with a few stars in
    the fore- and background. On opposite sides of the bubble, there are
    two regions where the gas pinches inward. This makes the inner region
          of the nebula appear like a peanut inside a larger ring.

                     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 1/5^th 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
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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