supernova
sooh per noh vuh
- n a star that explodes and becomes extremely luminous in the process
- This artist's illustration provided by NASA shows what the brightest supernova ever recorded, known as SN 2006gy, may have looked like when it exploded.
- The new supernova's remoteness was even more important for another reason.
- The new supernova, some 50% closer to the beginning of the universe than any supernova known before, was far brighter than had been predicted.