Supernova | Definition, Types, & Facts (2024)

supernova, any of a class of violently exploding stars whose luminosity after eruption suddenly increases many millions of times its normal level.

The term supernova is derived from nova (Latin: “new”), the name for another type of exploding star. Supernovae resemble novae in several respects. Both are characterized by a tremendous, rapid brightening lasting for a few weeks, followed by a slow dimming. Spectroscopically, they show blue-shifted emission lines, which imply that hot gases are blown outward. But a supernova explosion, unlike a nova outburst, is a cataclysmic event for a star, one that essentially ends its active (i.e., energy-generating) lifetime. When a star “goes supernova,” considerable amounts of its matter, equaling the material of several Suns, may be blasted into space with such a burst of energy as to enable the exploding star to outshine its entire home galaxy.

Supernovae explosions release not only tremendous amounts of radio waves and X-rays but also cosmic rays. Some gamma-ray bursts have been associated with supernovae. Supernovae also release many of the heavier elements that make up the components of the solar system, including Earth, into the interstellar medium. Spectral analyses show that abundances of the heavier elements are greater than normal, indicating that these elements do indeed form during the course of the explosion. The shell of a supernova remnant continues to expand until, at a very advanced stage, it dissolves into the interstellar medium.

Historical supernovae

Historically, only seven supernovae are known to have been recorded before the early 17th century. The most famous of them occurred in 1054 and was seen in one of the horns of the constellation Taurus. The remnants of this explosion are visible today as the Crab Nebula, which is composed of glowing ejecta of gases flying outward in an irregular fashion and a rapidly spinning, pulsating neutron star, called a pulsar, in the centre. The supernova of 1054 was recorded by Chinese and Korean observers; it also may have been seen by southwestern American Indians, as suggested by certain rock paintings discovered in Arizona and New Mexico. It was bright enough to be seen during the day, and its great luminosity lasted for weeks. Other prominent supernovae are known to have been observed from Earth in 185, 393, 1006, 1181, 1572, and 1604.

The closest and most easily observed of the hundreds of supernovae that have been recorded since 1604 was first sighted on the morning of Feb. 24, 1987, by the Canadian astronomer Ian K. Shelton while working at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. Designated SN 1987A, this formerly extremely faint object attained a magnitude of 4.5 within just a few hours, thus becoming visible to the unaided eye. The newly appearing supernova was located in the Large Magellanic Cloud at a distance of about 160,000 light-years. It immediately became the subject of intense observation by astronomers throughout the Southern Hemisphere and was observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. SN 1987A’s brightness peaked in May 1987, with a magnitude of about 2.9, and slowly declined in the following months.

Types of supernovae

Supernovae may be divided into two broad classes, Type I and Type II, according to the way in which they detonate. Type I supernovae may be up to three times brighter than Type II; they also differ from Type II supernovae in that their spectra contain no hydrogen lines and they expand about twice as rapidly.