  X-ray observations have unveiled the existence of enigmatic point-like
sources at the center of young (a few kyrs) supernova remnants. These sources,
known as Central Compact Objects (CCOs), are thought to be neutron stars
produced by the supernova explosion, although their X-ray phenomenology makes
them markedly different from all the other young neutron stars discovered so
far.The aim of this work is to search for the optical/IR counterpart of the
Vela Junior CCO and to understand the nature of the associated Halpha nebula
discovered by Pellizzoni et al. (2002).}{We have used deep optical (R band) and
IR (J,H,Ks bands) observations recently performed by our group with the ESO VLT
to obtain the first deep, high resolution images of the field with the goal of
resolving the nebula structure and pinpointing a point-like source possibly
associated with the neutron star.Our R-band image shows that both the nebula's
flux and its structure are very similar to the Halpha ones, suggesting that the
nebula spectrum is dominated by pure Halpha line emission. However, the nebula
is not detected in our IR observations, whick makes it impossible to to
constrain its spectrum. A faint point-like object (J>22.6, H~21.6, Ks ~ 21.4)
compatible with the neutron star's Chandra X-ray position is detected in our IR
images (H and Ks) but not in the optical one (R > 25.6), where it is buried by
the nebula background. The nebula is most likely a bow-shock produced by the
neutron star motion through the ISM or, alternatively, a photo-ionization
nebula powered by UV radiation from a hot neutron star.

Astrophysics