An optical nebula associated with a young X-ray supernova remnant in Vela

A remarkable filamentary nebula (RCW 37) in the close vicinity of the newly discovered X-ray-emitting supernova remnant in Vela (RX J0852.0-4622) is i nvestigated. This supernova explosion is arguably the nearest in recent his tory. A comparison is made between deep United Kingdom Schmidt Telescope op tical images of the region and the ROSAT X-ray data in which the remnant wa s discovered. This reveals that RCW 37 is most likely directly associated w ith an X-ray projection from RX J0852.0-4622. This interpretation is streng thened by new long-slit echelle spectrometry of the edge of RCW 37 in the l ight of [S II] lambda 6716. A systematic increase in the velocity splitting of the line profiles, from the nebular edge toward its center, of >100 km s(-1) is found. The structure bears morphological and kinematical similarit ies to the famous Crab Nebula funnel.