Supernova

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˌsuː.pə(ɹ)ˈnəʊ.və/

Definitions

1. An extremely luminous stellar explosion that occurs when a massive star reaches the end of its life or when a white dwarf accumulates matter from a companion star, briefly outshining an entire galaxy
2. A cataclysmic stellar explosion in which a star suddenly increases dramatically in brightness before fading, caused by either core collapse in massive stars or thermonuclear detonation on white dwarfs
3. The violent death or explosive outburst of a star that temporarily becomes extraordinarily bright, rivaling the luminosity of billions of normal stars combined

Etymology: Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky, two astronomers working in the early 1930s, coined "supernova" by combining the prefix "super-", meaning exceptionally large or superior in power, with "nova", the old term for a sudden brightening of a star that had previously been faint and unremarkable. Zwicky and Baade introduced the term in an astrophysics course and in seminars at the California Institute of Technology in 1931, so the word was in use in lectures before it appeared in print. The first published use is usually credited to the Swedish astronomer Knut Lundmark, whose paper is dated 31 December 1932 and appeared in 1933. The word's building blocks are both Latin. "Nova" is the feminine form of "novus", "new", which is why astronomers once described these flares as new stars, even though the star was often ancient and simply became visible for a short time.

Synonyms: stellar explosion, nova, exploding star, cataclysmic variable, celestial event