“A supernova is a stellar explosion that briefly outshines an entire galaxy, radiating as much energy as the Sun or any ordinary star is expected to emit over its entire life span, before fading from view over several weeks or months.[1] The extremely luminous burst of radiation expels much or all of a star’s material[2] at a velocity of up to 30,000 km/s (10% of the speed of light), driving a shock wave[3] into the surrounding interstellar medium. This shock wave sweeps up an expanding shell of gas and dust called a supernova remnant. A great proportion of primary cosmic rays comes from supernovae.[4] Supernovae are more energetic than a nova. Nova means “new” in Latin, referring to what appears to be a very bright new star shining in the celestial sphere; the prefix “super-” distinguishes supernovae from ordinary novae, which are far less luminous. The word supernova was coined by Walter Baade and Fritz Zwicky in 1931.[5] It is pronounced /ˌsuːpərnoʊvə/ with the plural supernovae /ˌsuːpərnoʊviː/ or supernovas (abbreviated SN, plural SNe after “supernovae”).” – Supernova – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova
This content is published under the Attribution 3.0 Unported license.