Gam-2

Variable star

Its story

Gamma-2 Velorum is the closest Wolf-Rayet star to the Sun: a monstrous pair made of a blue O-type supergiant and a stripped core that has already exhaled most of its mass into space as a stellar wind. It shines roughly 170,000 times brighter than the Sun and is destined to detonate as a supernova. Its light, after travelling 1,117 years, reaches us as the echo of a cataclysm still to come.

Constellation: Vela
Apparent magnitude: 1.75
Distance: 1117.1 light years
Coordinates (J2000): RA 122.383° · Dec -47.337°
Catalogue: HIP 39953 · HD 68273

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