nova.

A sudden major brightening caused by a thermonuclear outburst on the surface of a white dwarf in a binary star system.

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Words that belong together

• bright nova
• nova eruption

On the page

The nova brightened enough to appear in the colony's unaided sky.

Usage notes

Primary category: sci-fi. Forms: Singular nova; plural novas or novae. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common.