the.com/nova
a star's spectacular brush with death, not its funeral — that's a supernova.
means A star that suddenly brightens enormously for a time before fading back, caused by a thermonuclear flare-up on its surface — not the star's actual destruction.
from Straight from Latin nova, the feminine of novus, "new" — short for the astronomer's phrase stella nova, "new star," since these objects seemed to appear out of nowhere in the sky. The Latin novus is an old, deep word, a cousin of Greek neos and English new. So the irony is built into the name: a nova is hailed as "new" precisely at the moment an old star is flaring up.
- latin root
- means new, though the star is ancient
- recurring act
- some novae erupt every few decades
- vampire star
- steals gas from a doomed companion
- thermonuclear
- runaway hydrogen fusion blows the surface off
- naked eye
- bright novae visibly appear from nothing
tycho's supernova 1572 — supernova in cassiopeia observed by tycho brahe, changed understanding of the heavens
kepler's supernova 1604 — last observed supernova in milky way, visible in ophiuchus constellation