Astronomy 101: Supernovae

In this video, learn about some of the brightest booms since the Big Bang and the various mechanisms that cause them.

By Bill Andrews

The remains of SN 1572, also called Tycho’s Supernova Remnant

Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/CXC/Calar Alto O. Krause (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy)

A supernova is an incredibly energetic stellar explosion. The name arises from the brightness of these blasts, which makes it look like a “new” star has appeared in the heavens. After astronomer Tycho Brahe’s 1573 work De stella nova, meaning “concerning the new star,” the name nova stuck around for such objects (even though he actually described not a nova but a supernova, now called SN 1572). In the 20th century, scientists realized there were two types of stellar explosions, and quirky astrophysicist Fritz Zwicky coined the term supernova to refer to the bigger and brighter explosions.

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