Vela (constellation)
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Vela is a
constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...
in the southern sky, which contains the
Vela Supercluster The Vela Supercluster (Vela SCl, VSCL) is a massive galactic supercluster about 265.5 megaparsecs (870 million light-years) away within the vicinity of the Zone of Avoidance, centered on the constellation Vela. It is one of the largest structur ...
. Its name is
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
for the
sail A sail is a tensile structure—which is made from fabric or other membrane materials—that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails may ...
s of a ship, and it was originally part of a larger constellation, the ship ''
Argo Navis Argo Navis (the Ship Argo), or simply Argo, is one of the 48 Ptolemy's constellations, now a grouping of three IAU constellations. It is formerly a single large constellation in the southern sky. The genitive is "Argus Navis", abbreviated "Arg". ...
'', which was later divided into three parts, the others being Carina and
Puppis Puppis is a constellation in the southern sky. Puppis, the Latin translation of "poop deck", was originally part of an over-large constellation Argo Navis (the ship of Jason and the Argonauts), which centuries after its initial description, was ...
. With an apparent magnitude of 1.8, its brightest star is the hot blue multiple star Gamma Velorum, one component of which is the brightest Wolf-Rayet star in the sky.
Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also re ...
and Kappa Velorum, together with
Epsilon Epsilon (, ; uppercase , lowercase or lunate ; el, έψιλον) is the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet, corresponding phonetically to a mid front unrounded vowel or . In the system of Greek numerals it also has the value five. It was der ...
and Iota Carinae, form the asterism known as the False Cross. 1.95-magnitude Delta is actually a triple or quintuple star system.


History

Argo Navis Argo Navis (the Ship Argo), or simply Argo, is one of the 48 Ptolemy's constellations, now a grouping of three IAU constellations. It is formerly a single large constellation in the southern sky. The genitive is "Argus Navis", abbreviated "Arg". ...
was one of the 48 classical constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer
Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...
, and represented the ship ''
Argo In Greek mythology the ''Argo'' (; in Greek: ) was a ship built with the help of the gods that Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcos to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece. The ship has gone on to be used as a motif in a variety of sour ...
'', used by Jason and the
Argonauts The Argonauts (; Ancient Greek: ) were a band of heroes in Greek mythology, who in the years before the Trojan War (around 1300 BC) accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, '' Argo'', ...
on their quest for the Golden Fleece in
Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the Cosmogony, origin and Cosmology#Metaphysical co ...
. German cartographer
Johann Bayer Johann Bayer (1572 – 7 March 1625) was a German lawyer and uranographer (celestial cartographer). He was born in Rain, Lower Bavaria, in 1572. At twenty, in 1592 he began his study of philosophy and law at the University of Ingolstadt, a ...
depicted the constellation on his '' Uranometria'' of 1603, and gave the stars
Bayer designation A Bayer designation is a stellar designation in which a specific star is identified by a Greek or Latin letter followed by the genitive form of its parent constellation's Latin name. The original list of Bayer designations contained 1,564 stars. ...
s from Alpha to Omega. However, his chart was inaccurate as the constellation was not fully visible from the Northern Hemisphere. Argo was more accurately charted and subdivided in 1752 by the French astronomer
Nicolas Louis de Lacaille Abbé Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille (; 15 March 171321 March 1762), formerly sometimes spelled de la Caille, was a French astronomer and geodesist who named 14 out of the 88 constellations. From 1750 to 1754, he studied the sky at the Cape of Good ...
, forming Carina (the
keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...
), Vela (the sails), and Puppis (the
poop deck In naval architecture, a poop deck is a deck that forms the roof of a cabin built in the rear, or " aft", part of the superstructure of a ship. The name originates from the French word for stern, ''la poupe'', from Latin ''puppis''. Thus th ...
). Despite the division, Lacaille kept Argo's
Bayer designation A Bayer designation is a stellar designation in which a specific star is identified by a Greek or Latin letter followed by the genitive form of its parent constellation's Latin name. The original list of Bayer designations contained 1,564 stars. ...
s. Therefore, Carina has the Alpha, Beta and Epsilon originally assigned to Argo Navis, while Vela's brightest stars are Gamma and Delta, Puppis has Zeta as its brightest star, and so on.


Characteristics

Vela is bordered by
Antlia Antlia (; from Ancient Greek ''ἀντλία'') is a constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere. Its name means " pump" in Latin and Greek; it represents an air pump. Originally Antlia Pneumatica, the constellation was established by N ...
and Pyxis to the north,
Puppis Puppis is a constellation in the southern sky. Puppis, the Latin translation of "poop deck", was originally part of an over-large constellation Argo Navis (the ship of Jason and the Argonauts), which centuries after its initial description, was ...
to the northwest, Carina to the south and southwest, and Centaurus to the east. Covering 500 square degrees, it ranks 32nd of the 88
modern constellations In contemporary astronomy, 88 constellations are recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Each constellation is a region of the sky, bordered by arcs of right ascension and declination. Together they cover the celestial sph ...
in size. The three-letter abbreviation for the constellation, as adopted by the
International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...
in 1922, is "Vel". The official constellation boundaries, as set by Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a polygon of 14 segments. In the equatorial coordinate system, the
right ascension Right ascension (abbreviated RA; symbol ) is the angular distance of a particular point measured eastward along the celestial equator from the Sun at the March equinox to the (hour circle of the) point in question above the earth. When paired w ...
coordinates of these borders lie between and , while the
declination In astronomy, declination (abbreviated dec; symbol ''δ'') is one of the two angles that locate a point on the celestial sphere in the equatorial coordinate system, the other being hour angle. Declination's angle is measured north or south of the ...
coordinates are between −37.16° and −57.17°.


Features


Stars

The brightest star in the constellation, Gamma Velorum, is a complex multiple star system. The brighter component, known as Gamma2 Velorum, shines as a blue-white star of apparent magnitude 1.83. It is a spectroscopic binary made up of two very hot blue stars orbiting each other every 78.5 days and separated by somewhere between 0.8 and 1.6 Astronomical Units (AU). The brighter component is a hot blue main-sequence star of spectral type O7.5 and is around 280,000 times as luminous, is around 30 times as massive and is 17 times the diameter of the Sun with a surface temperature of 35,000 K. The second component is an extremely rare example of hot star known as a
Wolf–Rayet star Wolf–Rayet stars, often abbreviated as WR stars, are a rare heterogeneous set of stars with unusual spectra showing prominent broad emission lines of ionised helium and highly ionised nitrogen or carbon. The spectra indicate very high surface ...
, and is the brightest example in the sky. It has a surface temperature of 57,000 and is around 170,000 times as luminous as the Sun, though it radiates most of its energy in the ultraviolet spectrum. Gamma1 is a blue-white star of spectral type B2III and apparent magnitude 4.3. The two pairs are separated by 41 arcseconds, easily separable in binoculars. Parallax measurements give a distance of 1,116 light-years, meaning that they are at least 12,000 AU apart. Further afield are 7.3-magnitude Gamma Velorum C and 9.4-magnitude Gamma Velorum D, lying 62 and 93 arcseconds south-southeast from Gamma2. The next brightest star is
Delta Velorum Delta Velorum (δ Velorum, abbreviated Delta Vel, δ Vel) is a triple star system in the southern constellation of Vela, near the border with Carina, and is part of the False Cross. Based on parallax measurements, it is approxima ...
or Alsephina, also a multiple star system and one of the brightest eclipsing binaries in the sky. Together with Kappa Velorum or Markeb, Iota Carinae or Aspidiske and Epsilon Carinae or Avior, it forms the diamond-shaped asterism known as the False Cross—so called because it is sometimes mistaken for the
Southern Cross Crux () is a constellation of the southern sky that is centred on four bright stars in a cross-shaped asterism commonly known as the Southern Cross. It lies on the southern end of the Milky Way's visible band. The name ''Crux'' is Latin for c ...
, causing errors in
astronavigation Celestial navigation, also known as astronavigation, is the practice of position fixing using stars and other celestial bodies that enables a navigator to accurately determine their actual current physical position in space (or on the surface o ...
. Appearing as a white star of magnitude 1.95, Delta is actually a triple or possibly quintuple star system located around 80 light-years from the
Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...
. Delta A has a magnitude of 1.99 and is an
eclipsing binary A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in wh ...
composed of two A-type white stars (Delta Aa and Ab) which orbit each other every 45.2 days and lie 0.5 AU from each other, with a resulting drop in magnitude of 0.4 when the dimmer one passes.in front of the brighter. Delta B is a 5.1 magnitude yellow G-class star of similar dimensions to the Sun which ranges between 26 and 72 AU away from the brighter pair, taking 142 years to complete a revolution. Further out still, at a distance of 1700 AU, are two red dwarfs of magnitudes 11 and 13. If they are part of the multiple system, they take 28000 years to complete an orbit. Also called Markeb, Kappa appears as a blue-white star of spectral type B2IV-V and magnitude 2.47 but is in fact a spectroscopic binary. The two orbit around each other with a period of 116.65 days, but the size, mass and nature of the companion are as yet unclear. The orange-hued
Lambda Velorum ) Lambda Velorum (λ Velorum, abbreviated Lambda Vel, λ Vel), officially named Suhail , is a star in the southern constellation of Vela. With a mean apparent visual magnitude of 2.21, this is the third-brightest star in the constell ...
, or Suhail, is the third-brightest star in the constellation. A supergiant of spectral type K4Ib-II, it varies between magnitudes 2.14 and 2.3, and lies 545 light-years distant. It has around 11,000 times the luminosity, 9 to 12 times the mass and 207 times the diameter of the Sun.
AH Velorum AH Velorum is a single, yellow-white hued star in the constellation Vela. It has an average apparent visual magnitude of 5.70, which makes it bright enough to be dimly visible to the naked eye in good seeing conditions. The distance to ...
is a Cepheid variable located less than a degree to the northeast of Gamma. A yellow-white supergiant of spectral type F7Ib-II, it pulsates between magnitudes 5.5 and 5.89 over 4.2 days. Also lying close to Gamma,
V Velorum V, or v, is the twenty-second and fifth-to-last letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''vee'' (pronounced ), plural ...
is a Cepheid of spectral type F6-F9II ranging from magnitude 7.2 to 7.9 over 4.4 days.
AI Velorum AI Velorum is a variable star in the southern constellation of Vela (constellation), Vela, abbreviated AI Vel. It is a prototype for a class of high amplitude Delta Scuti variables. The apparent visual magnitude of this star fluctuates ar ...
is located 2.8 degrees north-northeast of Gamma, a Delta Scuti variable of spectral type A2p-F2pIV/V that ranges between magnitudes 6.15 and 6.76 in around 2.7 hours. V390 Velorum is an aged star that has been found to be surrounded by a dusty disk. An
RV Tauri variable RV Tauri variables are luminous variable stars that have distinctive light variations with alternating deep and shallow minima. History and discovery German astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Argelander monitored the distinctive variations in brightne ...
, it has a spectral type of F3e and ranges between magnitudes 9.01 and 9.27 over nearly 95 days. Omicron Velorum is a blue-white subgiant of spectral type B3III-IV located around 495 light-years from the Solar System. A slowly pulsating B star, it ranges between magnitudes 3.57 and 3.63 over 2.8 days. It is the brightest star in, and gives its name to, the Omicron Velorum Cluster, also known as
IC 2391 IC 2391 (also known as the Omicron Velorum Cluster or Caldwell 85) is an open cluster in the constellation Vela. The Persian astronomer Al Sufi may have first described it about 964. It was found by Abbe Lacaille and cataloged as Lac II 5. Th ...
, an
open cluster An open cluster is a type of star cluster made of up to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud and have roughly the same age. More than 1,100 open clusters have been discovered within the Milky Way galaxy, and ...
located around 500 light-years away. Seven star systems have been found to have
planets A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a young ...
.
HD 75289 HD 75289 is a faint double star in the southern constellation of Vela. The primary component has a yellow hue and an apparent visual magnitude of 6.35. Under exceptionally good circumstances it might be visible to the unaided eye; however ...
is a Sun-like star of spectral type G0V with a
hot Jupiter Hot Jupiters (sometimes called hot Saturns) are a class of gas giant exoplanets that are inferred to be physically similar to Jupiter but that have very short orbital periods (). The close proximity to their stars and high surface-atmosphere temp ...
planetary companion that takes only about 3.51 days to revolve at an
orbital distance In geometry, the major axis of an ellipse is its longest diameter: a line segment that runs through the center and both foci, with ends at the two most widely separated points of the perimeter. The semi-major axis (major semiaxis) is the lon ...
of 0.0482 AU.
WASP-19 WASP-19 is a magnitude 12.3 star located in the Vela constellation of the southern hemisphere. This star has been found to host a transiting hot Jupiter-type planet in tight orbit. The WASP-19 is older than Sun, has fraction of heavy ...
is a star of apparent magnitude 12.3 located 815 light-years away, which has a hot Jupiter-like planet that orbits every 0.7 days.
HD 73526 HD 73526 is a star in the southern constellation of Vela. With an apparent visual magnitude of +8.99, it is much too faint to be viewed with the naked eye. The star is located at a distance of approximately from the Sun based on para ...
is a Sun-like star of spectral type G6V that has two planets around double the mass of Jupiter each with orbits of 187 and 377 days, respectively. HD 85390 is an orange dwarf of spectral type K1.5V lying around 111 light-years distant with a planet 42 times as massive as Earth orbiting every 788 days.
HD 93385 HD 93385 is a star in the southern constellation of Vela. At an apparent visual magnitude of 7.5, it is too faint to be seen with the unaided eye. Parallax measurements made using the Gaia spacecraft show an annual shift of . This is equi ...
is a Sun-like star of spectral type G2/G3V located around 138 light-years away that is orbited by two super-Earths with periods of 13 and 46 days and masses 8.3 and 10.1 times that of Earth, respectively.


Brown dwarfs

The discovery of a binary
brown dwarf Brown dwarfs (also called failed stars) are substellar objects that are not massive enough to sustain nuclear fusion of ordinary hydrogen ( 1H) into helium in their cores, unlike a main-sequence star. Instead, they have a mass between the most ...
system named
Luhman 16 Luhman 16 (WISE 1049−5319, WISE J104915.57−531906.1) is a binary brown-dwarf system in the southern constellation Vela at a distance of approximately from the Sun. These are the closest-known brown dwarfs and the closest syst ...
only 6.6 light-years away, the third-closest system to the Solar System, was announced on 11 March 2013.


Deep-sky objects

Of the
deep-sky object A deep-sky object (DSO) is any astronomical object that is not an individual star or Solar System object (such as Sun, Moon, planet, comet, etc.). The classification is used for the most part by amateur astronomers to denote visually observed fa ...
s of interest in Vela is a planetary nebula known as
NGC 3132 NGC 3132 (also known as the Eight-Burst Nebula, the Southern Ring Nebula, or Caldwell 74) is a bright and extensively studied planetary nebula in the constellation Vela. Its distance from Earth is estimated at about 613 pc. or 2,000 light-yea ...
, nicknamed the 'Eight-Burst Nebula' or 'Southern Ring Nebula' (see accompanying photo). It lies on the border of the constellation with Antlia.
NGC 2899 NGC 2899 is a planetary nebula in the southern constellation of Vela (constellation), Vela. It was discovered by English astronomer John Herschel on February 27, 1835. This nebula can be viewed with a moderate-sized amateur telescope, but require ...
is an unusual red-hued example. This constellation has 32 more planetary nebulae. The Gum Nebula is a faint emission nebula, believed to be the remains of a million-year-old supernova. Within it lie the smaller and younger Vela Supernova Remnant. This is the
nebula A nebula ('cloud' or 'fog' in Latin; pl. nebulae, nebulæ or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming regio ...
of a
supernova A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when ...
explosion that is believed to have been visible from Earth around 10,000 years ago. The remnant contains the
Vela Pulsar The Vela Pulsar (PSR J0835-4510 or PSR B0833-45) is a radio, optical, X-ray- and gamma-emitting pulsar associated with the Vela Supernova Remnant in the constellation of Vela. Its parent Type II supernova exploded approximately 11,000â ...
, the first
pulsar A pulsar (from ''pulsating radio source'') is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation out of its magnetic poles. This radiation can be observed only when a beam of emission is pointing toward Ea ...
to be identified optically. Nearby is
NGC 2736 NGC 2736 (also known as the Pencil Nebula) is a small part of the Vela Supernova Remnant, located near the Vela Pulsar in the constellation Vela (constellation), Vela. The nebula's linear appearance triggered its popular name. It resides about 8 ...
, also known as the Pencil Nebula.
HH-47 HH 46/47 is a complex of Herbig–Haro objects (HH objects), located around 450 parsecs (about 1,470 light-years) away in a Bok globule near the Gum nebula. Astrophysical jet, Jets of partially ionized gas emerging from a Protostar, young star p ...
is a Herbig-Haro Object, a young star around 1,400
light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...
s from the Sun that is ejecting material at tremendous speed (up to a million kilometres per hour) into its surrounds. This material glows as it hits surrounding gas.
NGC 2670 NGC commonly refers to: * New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, a catalogue of deep sky objects in astronomy NGC may also refer to: Companies * NGC Corporation, name of US electric company Dynegy, Inc. from 1995 to 1998 * Nati ...
is an
open cluster An open cluster is a type of star cluster made of up to a few thousand stars that were formed from the same giant molecular cloud and have roughly the same age. More than 1,100 open clusters have been discovered within the Milky Way galaxy, and ...
located in Vela. It has an overall magnitude of 7.8 and is 3,200 light-years from Earth. The stars of NGC 2670, a Trumpler class II 2 p and Shapley class-d cluster, are in a conformation suggesting a bow and arrow. Its class indicates that it is a poor, loose cluster, though detached from the star field. It is somewhat concentrated at its center, and its less than 50 stars range moderately in brightness. Located 2 degrees south of Gamma Velorum, NGC 2547 is an open cluster containing around 50 stars of magnitudes 7 to 15.
NGC 3201 NGC 3201 (also known as Caldwell 79) is a low galactic latitude globular cluster in the southern constellation of Vela. It has a very low central concentration of stars. This cluster was discovered by James Dunlop on May 28, 1826 and listed in h ...
is a globular cluster discovered by James Dunlop on May 28, 1826. Its stellar population is inhomogeneous, varying with distance from the core. The
effective temperature The effective temperature of a body such as a star or planet is the temperature of a black body that would emit the same total amount of electromagnetic radiation. Effective temperature is often used as an estimate of a body's surface temperature ...
of the stars shows an increase with greater distance, with the redder and cooler stars tending to be located closer to the core. As of 2010, is one of only two clusters (including Messier 4) that shows a definite inhomogeneous population. RCW 36 is a star-forming region in Vela, and one of the nearest sites of massive star formation. This star-forming region has given rise to a cluster of several hundred young stars that power an HII region. The star-forming region lies in Clump 6 in the Vela Molecular Ridge Cloud C.


References

* * Ian Ridpath and Wil Tirion (2017). ''Stars and Planets Guide'', Collins,
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. .
Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial su ...
, Princeton. . * Richard Hinckley Allen, ''Star Names, Their Lore and Legend'',
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
, Dover, various dates.


External links


Star Tales – Vela


{{DEFAULTSORT:Vela (Constellation) Constellations Asterisms (astronomy) Southern constellations Constellations listed by Lacaille