As has been widely reported, Earth’s inhabitants are looking forward to a rare event in the sky. It’s a “nova”, predicted to be visible sometime in the coming weeks.
The word “nova” is simply Latin for “new.” Coined during the Renaissance, it initially meant “a new bright thingy in the sky that isn’t just another Starlink satellite.” Nowadays it means a very particular type of new bright thingy.
But let’s not confuse it with a “supernova.” That’s something different. How different?
- Nova: Your house has an electrical blackout for an hour
- Supernova: Your entire city goes dark for a week
- Nova: A meteor kills the dinosaurs and lots of other creatures
- Supernova: A meteor melts the Earth and blasts part of it skyward to create the Moon
