Vela, the Sails, is the part of the ancient ship Argo that carried its sails, a southern Milky Way constellation home to the Vela pulsar and its remnant.
At a glance
| stars in the figure | 8 |
|---|---|
| nearest star of the figure | Psi Velorum, 61.4 light-years (18.8 pc) |
| farthest star of the figure | Phi Velorum, 1,590 light-years (488 pc) |
| depth | the farthest is 26 × farther than the nearest |
Read off the piece’s own catalogue, the same values it draws with.
About Vela
Vela was once the sails of Argo Navis, the great ship of Jason and the Argonauts. When Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille divided the ship, the pieces kept Argo’s Greek letters, so Vela has no Alpha or Beta. Its brightest star is Gamma Velorum, whose brighter member is the brightest Wolf–Rayet star in the sky, a massive star stripped to its hot core. Suhail is an orange supergiant. Alsephina and Markeb, with two stars of Carina, form the False Cross, often mistaken for the Southern Cross.
Vela lies in the southern Milky Way. The Vela supernova remnant, the shredded shell of a star that exploded long ago, spreads across it, with the Vela pulsar, the spinning neutron star left behind, at its heart. The Omicron Velorum cluster is a bright group of young stars, and the Southern Ring Nebula, a planetary nebula, lies on its border with Antlia.
Vela is best seen on evenings in the southern late summer and autumn. From mid-northern latitudes only its northern edge rises.
What you see in the piece
With CONSTELLATIONS (N) on, step out of the HUMAN EYE view (E) and the sails tear apart: the nearest drawn star sits close to the Sun, the farthest many times deeper, out along the Galaxy’s disc.
Questions
What is the False Cross?
The False Cross is a cross-shaped group of four stars, two in Vela and two in Carina, larger and fainter than the Southern Cross and often mistaken for it.
How far away are the stars of Vela?
The nearest star of the figure is Psi Velorum, 61.4 light-years (18.8 pc); the farthest is Phi Velorum, 1,590 light-years (488 pc). The farthest is 26 × farther than the nearest.