Vela constellation is located in the southern sky and was originally part of the much larger constellation Argo Navis, along with constellations Puppis and Carina, which was first catalogued by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy in the 2nd century. Argo Narvis represented the ship on which Jason and the Argonauts sailed on their quest for the Golden Fleece. The name Vela means “the sails”, in Latin, while Puppis means “the stern” and Carina means “the keel”.
In the 18th century, French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille divided Argo Navis into the three smaller constellations, which were then added to the official list of the modern constellations in the early 20th century.
The constellation is also home to a number of deep sky objects, such as the Vela Supernova Remnant, the Omicron Velorum Cluster and the Pencil Nebula. There are no Messier objects in Vela but there are three meteor showers associated with the constellation — the Delta Velids, the Gamma Velids and the Puppid-Velids.
History and Mythology Of The Vela Constellation
Vela used to be part of the constellation of Argo Navis, along with constellations Puppis and Carina. While Vela itself isn’t associated with any myths, Argo Navis represented the ship on which Jason and the Argonauts sailed to Colchis to get the Golden Fleece.
The ship was named after its creator Argus, who built it under the orders of Athena, using timber from Mount Pelion. Argo Navis originally occupied a vast area of space between the constellations Canis Major and Crux. Due to the massive size of Argo Navis and the sheer number of stars that required separate designation, Nicolas Louis de Lacaille divided Argo into three sections in 1763, including Vela.
Lacaille only used one set of Greek letters for all three constellations. This is why Vela does not have any stars designated Alpha or Beta; these designations belong to stars in the constellation of Carina.
Location Of The Vela Constellation
The constellation of Vela is the 32nd largest constellation and occupies an area of 500 square degrees. It is located in the second quadrant of the southern hemisphere (SQ2) and can be seen at latitudes between +30° and -90°.
Its right ascension is 9h and its declination is −50°. It is best seen at 9pm during the month of March. Vela’s neighboring constellations are Antlia, Carina, Centaurus, Puppis and Pyxis and it belongs to the Heavenly Waters family of constellations, along with Carina, Columba, Delphinus, Equuleus, Eridanus, Piscis Austrinus, Puppis and Pyxis.
Notable Stars
Regor
Regor, also known as Gamma Velorum or Suhail, is the brightest star in the constellation of Vela and has an apparent magnitude of 1.7. It is located around 336 light years away from Earth and its traditional name Suhail is derived from the Arabic suhayl al-muħlif, which means “the glorious (star) of the oath”.
Regor is a multiple star system, composed of at least six stars. The primary component, known as Gamma-2 Velorum or Gamma Velorum A, is a spectroscopic binary star composed of a blue supergiant with the stellar classification of O7.5 and a massive Wolf-Rayet star. The Wolf-Rayet star is one of the nearest supernova candidates to Earth and will likely end its life in a Type Ic supernova explosion. The two stars are separated by 1 astronomical unit and orbit each other with a period of 78.5 days.
The nearest companion, known as Gamma-1 Velorum or Gamma Velorum B, is a blue-white class B subgiant star. Also in the system are Gamma Velorum C, a white star with a visual magnitude of 8.5, and another binary star composed of Gamma Velorum D, a white, class A star with an apparent magnitude of 9.4, and Gamma Velorum E, which is a 13th magnitude star.
Alsephina
Alsephina, also known as Delta Velorum, is the second brightest star in Vela and has an apparent magnitude of 1.96. It is located around 80.6 light years away from the Sun, near the border with the constellation of Carina.
Alsephina is a multiple star system that is composed of Delta Velorum A and Delta Velorum B. Delta Velorum A is a spectroscopic binary star with an orbital period of 45.15 days and a visual magnitude of 1.97, making it the brightest eclipsing binary star system known, while Delta Velorum B has a magnitude of 5.55. Both Delta Velorum A and Delta Velorum B are rapid spinners and have an orbital period of 142 years.
Around 69 arc seconds away from the main pair, another binary system can be found. It consists of an 11th magnitude and 13th magnitude stars separated by 6 seconds of arc.
Suhail
Suhail, also known as Lambda Velorum, is the third brightest star in Vela and has an apparent magnitude of 2.21. It is located around 545 light years away from Earth and has the stellar classification of K4.5Ib-II, which means that it is an orange star halfway between the bright giant and supergiant stages. It is also classified as an LC-type slow irregular variable star and exhibits variations in brightness ranging from apparent magnitude 2.14 to 2.30.
Suhail has a mass that is 8.5 times that of the Sun and a radius that is 207 times that of the Sun. It is 10,000 times more luminous, too. It is believed to be about 32 million years old.
Markeb
Markeb, also known as Kappa Velorum, (not to be confused with Markab) is a spectroscopic binary star with the combined stellar classification of B2 IV, making it a blue-white subgiant star. It has a visual magnitude of 2.48 and is located around 572 light years away from Earth. The two stars orbit each other with a period of 116.65 days.
The name Markeb is derived from the Arabic word markab, which means “something to ride”.
Mu Velorum
Mu Velorum is another binary star, composed of a yellow giant star with the stellar classification of G5 III and a a class G (yellow) main sequence dwarf belonging to the stellar class G2V. The two stars orbit each other with a period of 116.24 years and are separated by 1.437 arc seconds. They have a combined apparent magnitude of 2.69, and the individual stars have visual magnitudes of 2.7 and 6.4.
The binary star system is located around 117 light years away from Earth. The bright component is about 107 times more luminous than the Sun. It also has 3.3 times the mass of the Sun and 13 times the radius of the Sun.
Phi Velorum
Phi Velorum is a blue-white supergiant with the stellar classification B5 Ib and an apparent magnitude of 3.52. It is located around 1,590 light years away from the Sun and has the traditional name Tseen Ke, which means “record of heaven” or “star chart” in Chinese.
Omicron Velorum
Omicron Velorum is a blue-white subgiant with the stellar classification B3 IV and an apparent magnitude of 3.60. It is also classed as a variable star and its luminosity varies from magnitude 3.55 to 3.67 over a period of 2.78 days. It is located around 490 light years away from the Solar System.
Omicron Velorum has a mass 5.5 times that of the Sun and a radius 4.3 times that of the Sun. It is also 1,000 times more luminous than the Sun.
Psi Velorum
Psi Velorum is a binary star that consists of a yellow-white subgiant with the stellar classification of F3IV and a yellow-white main sequence dwarf with the stellar classification of F0V. The brighter component has a visual magnitude of 4.1, while the companion has an apparent magnitude of 4.6. They are separated by 0.68 arc seconds and orbit each other with a period of 33.99 years.
Psi Velorum has an apparent magnitude of 3.60 and is located around 60.5 light years away from the Sun. It is the nearest star in Vela to Earth.
N Velorum
N Velorum, also known as HD 82668, is an orange giant star with the stellar classification K5 III and an apparent magnitude of 3.16. It is located around 239 light years away from the Sun, on the border between Vela and Carina. Its mass is twice that of the Sun’s and its radius is 29 times that of the Sun.
WISE 1049-5319
WISE 1049-5319 is a binary brown dwarf system that was discovered by the astronomer Kevin Luhman from Pennsylvania State University in 2013. It is the nearest known brown dwarf system to the Solar System and is only 6.6 light years away from the Sun, making it the nearest system to the Sun discovered since 1916.
The two stars in WISE 1049-5319 have an orbital period of about 25 years and orbit each other with a distance of around 3 astronomical units. The primary component has the stellar classification of L8 ± 1.
HD 92139
HD 92139 is a triple star system with a combined apparent magnitude of 3.84. It is composed of a yellow-white subgiant with the stellar classification of F3IV that is a binary star, and a white main sequence dwarf belonging to the stellar class A6V.
The binary star has an apparent magnitude of 4.5 and the two components orbit each other every 10.21 days. The third star has a visual magnitude of 5.1 and is separated from the main pair by 0.3 arc seconds. It orbits the pair with a period of 16.3 years.
HD 78004
HD 78004 is an orange giant star with the stellar classification of K2III and an apparent magnitude of 3.75. It also has an absolute magnitude of -1.14. It is located around 309 light years away from the Solar System.
HD 75063
HD 75063 is a white giant star with the spectral classification A1III and a visual magnitude of 3.87. It has an absolute magnitude of -4.54. It is located around 1,550 light years away from Earth.
HD 74180
HD 74180 is a binary star with a combined stellar classification of F3Ia and a visual magnitude of 3.77. It is located around 3.100 light years away from Earth. It is composed of a yellow-white supergiant classified as an irregular variable, with a brightness varying from magnitude 3.77 to 3.91, and a 10th magnitude star that is separated from the primary by 37.5 arc seconds.
HD 73526
HD 73526 is a yellow main sequence dwarf with the stellar classification G6V and an apparent magnitude of 9.00. It is located around 310 light years away from the Solar System and is 1.77 times more luminous than the Sun. It has roughly the same mass as the Sun but its radius is 1.49 times that of the Sun.
There are two planets orbiting HD 73526 — the inner planet is HD 73526 b and the outer planet is HD 73526 c. They complete orbits of the star every 187.5 and 376.9 days, and have masses 2.07 and 2.30 times that of Jupiter.
WASP-19
WASP-19 is a yellow main sequence dwarf with the stellar classification of G8V and an apparent magnitude of 12.3. It is located around 815 light years away from us. A Jupiter type planet — WASP-19 b — was found orbiting the star in 2009 with an orbital period of 0.78884 days.
V390 Velorum
V390 Velorum is a massive red giant star with the stellar classification F3e and a visual magnitude of 10.48. It is an RV Tauri type variable and is located around 2,600 light years away from Earth. It has evolved from the red giant stage and started to throw its hull off, which formed a disk of dust that will eventually form a planetary nebula.
V390 Velorum is 5,000 times more luminous than the Sun and has a companion that completes an orbit around it every 499 days.
Asterism
The False Cross
The False Cross asterism is an asterism found in both Vela and Carina constellations. It is made up of Alsephina and Markeb in Vela and Aspidiske and Avior in Carina. It is named the False Cross asterism because it is often mistaken for the Southern Cross.
Deep Sky Objects
Eight-Burst Nebula (Southern Ring Nebula)
The Eight-Burst Nebula, also known as the Southern Ring Nebula, NGC 3132 or Caldwell 74, is a bright planetary nebula with an apparent magnitude of 9.87. It was named the Eight-Burst Nebula because it appears like the figure 8 in amateur telescopes. It spans almost half a light year in diameter and is located 2,000 light years away from the Sun. The Eight-Burst Nebula contains two stars — a 10th magnitude star and a 16th magnitude white dwarf.
Gum Nebula
The Gum Nebula, also known as Gum 12, is an emission nebula that was discovered by the Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum in the 1950s and named after him. It contains the Vela Supernova Remnant and is believed to be a greatly expanded remnant of a supernova that occurred about a million years ago.
The Gum Nebula spans around 40 degrees in the constellations Vela and Puppis and is located around 400 parsecs from Earth.
Gum 19
Gum 19 is a star-forming region in Vela that is located around 22,000 light years away from Earth. It is illuminated by the large, hot blue supergiant star V391 Velorum and has a surface temperature of 30,000 degrees Celsius.
Vela Supernova Remnant
The Vela Supernova Remnant, also known as Gum 16, is, as the name suggests, a supernova remnant. It is believed to have exploded about 11,000 – 12,300 years ago and has an apparent magnitude of 12. It is around 815 light years away from Earth.
The Vela Supernova Remnant is about 8 degrees in size and includes the Pencil Nebula and is associated with the Vela Pulsar. It also overlaps the Puppis Supernova Remnant in Puppis constellation.
Vela Pulsar
Vela Pulsar, also known as PSR B0833-45, is a pulsar associated with the Vela Supernova Remnant. It has an apparent magnitude of 23.6 and is located around 959 light years away from the Solar System. It is a source of radio, optical, gamma and x-ray emissions.
The Pencil Nebula
The Pencil Nebula, also known as NGC 2736, is a nebula that was discovered by the English astronomer John Herschel on March 1, 1835 from the Cape of Good Hope. It has an apparent magnitude of 12 and is believed to have been formed from part of the shock wave of the supernova remnant. It is located around 815 light years away from Earth, near the Vela Pulsar in the Vela Supernova Remnant.
Omicron Velorum Cluster
Omicron Velorum Cluster, also known as IC 2391 or Caldwell 85, is a young open cluster with an apparent magnitude of 2.5. It is located around 500 light years away from Earth and spans around 50 arc minutes. It also contains about 30 stars and can be seen without binoculars.
NGC 3201
NGC 3201, also known as Caldwell 79, is a globular cluster with a visual magnitude of 8.24 that was discovered by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop on May 28, 1826. It is thought to be around 10.24 billion years old and composed mainly of old stars, and is mostly dominated by red giants.
Caldwell 79 is located around 16,300 light years away from Earth and is about 40 light years in radius.
NGC 2899
NGC 2899 is a planetary nebula that was discovered by John Herschel in 1835. It is located around 6,500 light years away from Earth.
NGC 2670
NGC 2670 is an open cluster with an apparent magnitude of 7.8. It consists of about 50 moderately bright stars and is located approximately 3,200 light years away from the Sun.
NGC 2547
NGC 2547 is an open cluster with an apparent magnitude of 4.7. It was discovered by Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1751 during his expedition to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. It is thought to be around 20 to 35 million years old and is located around 1,500 light years away from Earth.
HH 47
HH 47, also known as Herbig Haro 47, is a Herbig-Haro object in Vela, located around 1,500 light years away from Earth. This means it is a patch of nebulosity formed as a result of a young star ejecting narrow jets of gas, which then collide with nearby gas and dust clouds.
Extra Facts
- The three-letter abbreviation for the Vela constellation, as adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922, is “Vel”.
- The official constellation boundaries, as set by Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a polygon of 14 segments.
Images:
- Some Images created with the NightVision app – https://www.nvastro.com/nvj.html
- Some Images created with the Stelvision Sky Map https://www.stelvision.com/en/sky-map/
- Vela 1 – https://starregistration.net/constellations/vela-constellation.html
- Vela 2 – https://in-the-sky.org/data/constellation.php?id=87
- Regor – https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/90212798758194147/
- Alsephina – https://theskylive.com/sky/stars/alsephina-delta-velorum-star
- Markeb – https://astrologyking.com/markeb-star/
- The False Cross – https://amazingsky.net/tag/false-cross/
- Eight Burst Nebula – https://www.reddit.com/r/astrophotography/comments/3rk0hg/ngc_3132_the_eightburst_nebula_hubble_data/
- Gum Nebula – http://www.russellsastronomy.com/sky/Narrow%20Field/Hi-res/Gum%20nebula.htm
- Pencil Nebula – https://scitechdaily.com/a-new-image-of-the-pencil-nebula/