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
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
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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These elements are thought to form through a series of nuclear reactions known as the rapid neutron capture process, or r-process, which was long theorized to occur only under extreme conditions such as those in supernovas or neutron star mergers.—
Victoria Corless,
Space.com,
7 May 2025
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Studies of the Cosmic Radiation Background—the echo of the first light from the Big Bang—gives one result, while measurements of how fast relatively close objects like supernovae are moving away from us suggests a faster rate.—
Arick Wierson,
MSNBC Newsweek,
16 Apr. 2025
Noun
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There’s also that classic album cover, which Rolling Stone named as the greatest ever — a haunting image of a pulsar, lonely out in space, 978 light years away.—
Rob Sheffield,
Rolling Stone,
28 Apr. 2025
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Radio pulsars, by comparison, produce much shorter signals — often mere seconds.—
Paul Smaglik,
Discover Magazine,
12 Mar. 2025
Noun
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The scientists found Big Wheel near a quasar, which is a powerful and active supermassive black hole, using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).—
Larissa G. Capella,
Space.com,
4 Apr. 2025
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This effect produced four distinct images of the same quasar in a cross-like pattern around the central galaxy, often referred to as an Einstein Cross.—
Sharmila Kuthunur,
Space.com,
24 Apr. 2025
Noun
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With so many options and variables, Feldman said the choice comes down to individual needs and preferences.—
Nathan Diller,
USA Today,
12 May 2025
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The bonuses are also influenced by other variables, including in-game interviews with players and the TV ratings their games generate.—
Pol Ballús,
New York Times,
11 May 2025
Noun
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Per Nine Planets, Uy Scuti is a red supergiant star located in the constellation Scutum.—
Michael Saponara,
Billboard,
16 Apr. 2025
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Young Thug has been teasing Uy Scuti — which takes its name from a red supergiant star 5,900 light years away — for about a month now.—
Jon Blistein,
Rolling Stone,
16 Apr. 2025
Noun
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Magnetars are neutron stars—the highly dense, collapsed cores of exploded stars—with powerful magnetic fields.—
Margherita Bassi,
Smithsonian Magazine,
7 May 2025
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Overlaying Chandra's X-ray data (shown in bright blue) with the radio data reveals the likely cause of the fracture to be an impact from a pulsar, a rapidly spinning neutron star that sends out pulses of radiation at regular intervals.—
Stefanie Waldek,
Space.com,
7 May 2025
Noun
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The Milky Way, our home galaxy, is part of a different supercluster called Laniakea, which, at 500 million light-years wide, is dwarfed by the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall.—
Robert Lea,
Space.com,
20 Apr. 2025
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This sell-off indicated a sense that the next wave of AI models may not require the tens of thousands of top-end GPUs that Silicon Valley behemoths have amassed into computing superclusters for the purposes of accelerating their AI innovation.—
Miles Klee,
Rolling Stone,
28 Jan. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Nova.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/nova. Accessed 15 May. 2025.
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