A double star distinguishable in a telescope, with its primary component being the brightest known Wolf-Rayet star, very hot and unstable, astonishingly ejecting mass at a high velocity. Even in simple spectrographs, prominent emissions in the blue region of the spectrum can be seen, lines of highly ionized atoms shining in an extensive warm envelope illuminated by the star. γ Velorum is in an advanced stage of its evolution and shines approximately 3,800 times brighter than the Sun. But this will not be the case forever. After several million years, it could explode as a supernova. It is located 840 light-years away.