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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This revealed that the supernova explosion erupted between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago and that Calvera is between 13,000 and 16,500 light-years away.—
Robert Lea,
Space.com,
2 Sep. 2025
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The combination of supernova, cosmic microwave background, and large-scale structure data all appeared to demand it.—
Ethan Siegel,
Big Think,
29 Aug. 2025
Noun
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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
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Instead of the familiar pulsing heartbeat of a typical pulsar, this source emitted a steady radio signal, unusually compact and highly polarized.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
29 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Gravitational lensing occurs when a massive object sits between Earth and a background source — in this case, RXJ1131-1231 and its quasar.—
Robert Lea,
Space.com,
27 Aug. 2025
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As such, quasars are among the most powerful beacons astronomers can use to probe distant regions of the universe.—
Lee Billings,
Scientific American,
18 June 2025
Noun
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Armed with the knowledge that disks have these slight warps, theorists have a new variable to input into their simulations of how planets are assembled, to gain new insights into how our Earth and the other planets of the solar system came to be.—
Keith Cooper,
Space.com,
27 Aug. 2025
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That's what good engineering provides, repeatable processes that work regardless of the specific variables.—
Malana VanTyler,
USA Today,
27 Aug. 2025
Noun
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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
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Its mass is between 10 and 15 times the mass of our sun; again, typical for a red supergiant.—
Keith Cooper,
Space.com,
13 Aug. 2025
Noun
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In this region, stellar populations are sparse, and stars with the necessary mass needed to go supernova and to birth a neutron star at the heart of a pulsar should be vanishingly rare.—
Robert Lea,
Space.com,
2 Sep. 2025
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But an unseen companion like a neutron star could be siphoning material away from the larger star — and that may have been enough to release a burst of radio waves, Blanchard said.—
Ashley Strickland,
CNN Money,
26 Aug. 2025
Noun
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Meta's first supercluster, called Prometheus, is slated to go live in 2026.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
21 July 2025
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Zuckerberg said Meta’s first supercluster is called Prometheus, and that the company is building several other multi-gigawatt clusters.—
Ashley Capoot,
CNBC,
14 July 2025
Cite this Entry
“Nova.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/nova. Accessed 9 Sep. 2025.
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