The discovery of a low-mass, pre-main-sequence stellar association around gamma Velorum

We report the serendipitous discovery of a population of low-mass, pre-main -sequence (PMS) stars in the direction of the Wolf-Rayet/O-star binary syst em gamma(2) Vel and the Vela OB2 association. We argue that gamma(2) Vel an d the low-mass stars are truly associated and approximately coeval, and tha t both are at distances between 360 and 490 pc, disagreeing at the 2 sigma level with the recent Hipparcos parallax of gamma(2) Vel, but consistent wi th older distance estimates. Our results clearly have implications for the physical parameters of the gamma(2) Vel system, but also offer an exciting opportunity to investigate the influence of high-mass stars on the mass fun ction and circumstellar disc lifetimes of their lower mass PMS siblings.