as in supernova
astronomy
a star that suddenly increases greatly in brightness and then within a few months or years becomes less bright again
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Recent Examples of nova
Even though novas are exceptionally bright, supernovas are brighter—reaching billions of times brighter than the sun at their peak.
—
Elizabeth Gamillo, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 July 2025
Recorded live at the Lincoln Center, the band plays a bossa-nova take on the song while Gaga sings solo, wearing one of Cher’s own wigs.
—Kristen S. Hé, Vulture, 19 Mar. 2025
To get a separate measure of how unusual this is, the researchers placed 8 million novas around the center of the galaxy, with the distribution being random but biased to match the galaxy's brightness under the assumption that novas will be more frequent in areas with more stars.
—John Timmer, Ars Technica, 27 Sep. 2024
Elizabeth Gamillo, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 July 2025
Recorded live at the Lincoln Center, the band plays a bossa-nova take on the song while Gaga sings solo, wearing one of Cher’s own wigs.
—Kristen S. Hé, Vulture, 19 Mar. 2025
To get a separate measure of how unusual this is, the researchers placed 8 million novas around the center of the galaxy, with the distribution being random but biased to match the galaxy's brightness under the assumption that novas will be more frequent in areas with more stars.
—John Timmer, Ars Technica, 27 Sep. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for nova
Noun
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One is an unusual type of supernova explosion that lasted much longer than those that typically release gamma rays, Levan said.—
Ashley Strickland,
CNN Money,
22 Sep. 2025
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Together, these guest stars form a supernova of talent designed to overcome such trivial challenges as coherence through sheer brute force.—
Alison Herman,
Variety,
17 Sep. 2025
Noun
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The X-ray data, in purple, shows the hot gas/plasma created by the central pulsar, which is clearly identifiable in both the individual and the composite image.—
Ethan Siegel,
Big Think,
12 Sep. 2025
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The characteristics of the supernova's hot gas, combined with the motion of the pulsar, allowed the team to determine the age of the system and its distance more precisely.—
Robert Lea,
Space.com,
2 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Additionally, this quasar is also producing jets of particles moving at nearly the speed of light, a rare feature among quasars.—
Rupendra Brahambhatt,
Interesting Engineering,
21 Sep. 2025
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In the late 1960s astronomers started to make extremely high-resolution observations of distant galaxies called quasars.—
Phil Plait,
Scientific American,
29 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Adelman’s vision for Murray’s substitution pattern will be another variable.—
Bennett Durando,
Denver Post,
24 Sep. 2025
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Here, hot weather is the confounding variable leading to both outcomes.—
Erica Sloan,
SELF,
23 Sep. 2025
Noun
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The album title is a reference to a red supergiant star 10,000 light-years away from Earth.—
Tomás Mier,
Rolling Stone,
18 Sep. 2025
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Skywatchers on Saturday night will be treated to the gorgeous sight of a waxing crescent moon close to Antares, an unmistakably bright red supergiant star shining in the south.—
Jamie Carter,
Forbes.com,
29 Aug. 2025
Noun
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This theoretical limit concerns how much matter can be accreted to a compact body like a neutron star or black hole.—
Robert Lea,
Space.com,
18 Sep. 2025
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In the 10 years since then, scientists have detected hundreds of black holes coming together, as well as other extreme cosmic events like neutron stars colliding and black holes merging with a neutron star.—
Nell Greenfieldboyce,
NPR,
11 Sep. 2025
Noun
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The full supercluster would have more than 1 million Ascend chips, according to Huawei.—
Evelyn Cheng,
CNBC,
18 Sep. 2025
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The chips designed by Huawei serve as the basis of the company’s AI infrastructure, in which a supercluster is connected to multiple superpods.—
Atharva Gosavi,
Interesting Engineering,
18 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Nova.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/nova. Accessed 3 Oct. 2025.
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