We report on the first detection of the Vela pulsar in the near-infrared with the VLT/ISAAC in the J _ { s } and H bands .
The pulsar magnitudes are J _ { s } = 22.71 \pm 0.10 and H = 22.04 \pm 0.16 .
We compare our results with the available multiwavelength data and show that the dereddened phase-averaged optical spectrum of the pulsar can be fitted with a power law F _ { \nu } \propto \nu ^ { - \alpha _ { \nu } } with \alpha _ { \nu } = 0.12 \pm 0.05 , assuming the color excess E _ { B - V } = 0.055 \pm 0.005 
based on recent spectral fits of the emission of the Vela pulsar and its supernova remnant in X-rays .
The negative slope of the pulsar spectrum is different from the positive slope observed over a wide optical range in the young Crab pulsar spectrum .
The near-infrared part of the Vela spectrum appears to have the same slope as the phase-averaged spectrum in the high energy X-ray tail , obtained in the 2 - 10 keV range with the RXTE .
Both of these spectra can be fitted with a single power law suggesting their common origin .
Because the phase-averaged RXTE spectrum in this range is dominated by the second X-ray peak of the pulsar light curve , coinciding with the second main peak of its optical pulse profile , we suggest that this optical peak can be redder than the first one .
We also detect two faint extended structures in the 1 . ^ { \prime \prime } 5 - 3 . ^ { \prime \prime } 1 vicinity of the pulsar , projected on and aligned with the south-east jet and the inner arc of the pulsar wind nebula , detected in X-rays with Chandra .
We discuss their possible association with the nebula .