Search results
- DictionarySu·per·no·va/ˈso͞opərˌnōvə/
noun
- 1. a star that suddenly increases greatly in brightness because of a catastrophic explosion that ejects most of its mass.
Learn the scientific and colloquial meanings of supernova, a word that describes the explosion of a star or a sudden rise to fame. See synonyms, examples, word history, and related entries.
People also ask
What is a supernova in physics?
What is a supernova explosion?
What happens during a supernova?
What is an example of a supernova?
A supernova (pl.: supernovae or supernovas) is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. A supernova occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star, or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion.
- What Causes A Supernova?
- How Bright Are Supernovas?
- How Common Are Supernovas?
- What Can We Learn from Supernovas?
- How Do Scientists Study Supernovas?
- GeneratedCaptionsTabForHeroSec
One type of supernova is caused by the “last hurrah” of a dying massive star. This happens when a star at least five times the mass of our sun goes out with a fantastic bang! Massive stars burn huge amounts of nuclear fuel at their cores, or centers. This produces tons of energy, so the center gets very hot. Heat generates pressure, and the pressur...
These spectacular events can be so bright that they outshine their entire galaxies for a few days or even months. They can be seen across the universe.
Not very. Astronomers believe that about two or three supernovas occur each century in galaxies like our own Milky Way. Because the universe contains so many galaxies, astronomers observe a few hundred supernovas per year outside our galaxy. Space dust blocks our view of most of the supernovas within the Milky Way.
Scientists have learned a lot about the universe by studying supernovas. They use the second type of supernova (the kind involving white dwarfs) like a ruler, to measure distances in space. They have also learned that stars are the universe’s factories. Stars generate the chemical elements needed to make everything in our universe. At their cores, ...
NASA scientists use a number of different types of telescopes to search for and then study supernovas. One example is the NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) mission, which uses X-ray vision to investigate the universe. NuSTAR is helping scientists observe supernovas and young nebulas to learn more about what happens leading up to, durin...
A supernova is the extremely bright, super-powerful explosion of a star. Learn about the two types of supernovas, how they happen, how bright they are, and what we can learn from them.
Jun 15, 2024 · supernova, any of a class of violently exploding stars whose luminosity after eruption suddenly increases many millions of times its normal level. The term supernova is derived from nova (Latin: “new”), the name for another type of exploding star.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Nov 12, 2020 · A supernova is the name given to the cataclysmic explosion of a massive star at the end of its life. It can emit more energy in a few seconds than our sun will radiate in its lifetime of...
Jun 19, 2023 · A supernova is what happens when a star has reached the end of its life and explodes in a brilliant burst of light. Supernovas can briefly outshine...
a star that explodes catastrophically owing to either instabilities following the exhaustion of its nuclear fuel or gravitational collapse following the accretion of matter from an orbiting companion star, becoming for a few days up to one hundred million times brighter than the sun.
