About the starDelta Velorum is the second brightest star in the constellation. It has an apparent magnitude of 1.96 and is 80.6 light years distant from the Sun. It is located near the border with the constellation Carina.
Delta Velorum is another multiple star system. It is composed of Delta Velorum A and Delta Velorum B, which have a wide orbit and a 142 year orbital period. Delta Velorum A has a visual magnitude of 1.97 and Delta Velorum B has a magnitude of 5.55. The primary component is itself a spectroscopic binary star with an orbital period of 45.15 days. It is the brightest eclipsing binary star system known. Both stars in the system have evolved away from the main sequence. Both are rapid spinners and believed to be about 400 million years old.
Another binary system can be found at a separation of 69 arc seconds. It consists of an 11th magnitude and 13th magnitude stars separated by 6 seconds of arc.
The brightest component of the Delta Velorum system is formally named Alsephina, derived from the Arabic word for "the ship," and sometimes also known as Koo She, which is Chinese for "bow and arrows."Vela MythVela represents the sails of the Argo Navis, the ship on which Jason and the Argonauts sailed from Iolcus to get the Golden Fleece. The ship was named after Argus, the shipwright who built it. It was said that the ship was constructed with the help of the goddess Athena. Once the expedition was a success, Argo was consecrated to the sea god Poseidon and then turned into a constellation.
Vela used to be part of the larger Greek constellation Argo Navis along with the constellations Puppis and Carina, which represented the stern and keel of the ship. Argo Navis was divided into the three smaller constellations in 1752 by the French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille.
Lacaille only used one set of Greek letters for all three constellations, which is why Vela does not have any stars designated Alpha or Beta. The stars that were designated Alpha and Beta in the constellation Argo Navis now belong to Carina constellation.