In this poster, we will summarise the review paper entitled: "Revisiting the archetypical wind accretor Vela X-1 in depth. Case study of a well-known X-ray binary and the limits of our knowledge." The paper, published in late 2021 in Astronomy and Astrophysics journal, triggered a discussion amongst the editors of Astronomy and Astrophysics leading to the creation of a new type of review article on uniquely interesting objects. In the paper we have: provided a thoughtful compilation of the knowledge of the Vela X-1 system and its modelling published over decades; added new information derived from public data or catalogues, including an updated distance and spectral classification based on the Gaia EDR3 release; and identified specific avenues of future research that could help to clarify open questions.

SMN acknowledges funding by the Spanish Ministry MCIU under project RTI2018-096686-B-C21 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE), co-funded by FEDER funds and by the Unidad de Excelencia María de Maeztu, ref. MDM-2017-0765.