Origin: Latin prefix super-
Supernova has 2 different meanings across 1 category:
a star that explodes and becomes extremely luminous in the process
"Astronomers watched as the distant galaxy brightened suddenly, confirming their theory that a massive star had undergone a supernova."
The explosion of a star, which increases its brightness to typically a billion times that of our sun, though attenuated by the great distance from our sun. Some leave only debris (Type I); others fade to invisibility as neutron stars (Type II).
"Astronomers watched in awe as the distant supernova briefly outshone its entire galaxy before fading back into darkness, leaving behind a dense remnant of stellar debris."