Nova

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Nova \No"va\ (n[=o]"v[.a]), n.; pl. L. {Novae} (n[=o]"v[=e]), E.
     {Novas} (n[=o]"v[.a]z). [L., fem. sing. of novus new.]
     (Astron.)
     A star which suddenly increases in brightness thousands of
     times, then fades back to near its original intensity. It may
     appear as a "new" star if its original brightness was too low


     for routine observation. A star which suddenly increases in
     brightness to many millions of times its original intensity
     is a {supernova}, and the postulated mechanisms for the
     increases of brightness of novae and supernovae are
     different.
  
     Note: The most important modern novae are:
  
     {No"va Co*ro"nae Bo`re*a"lis}[1866];
  
     {No"va Cyg"ni}[1876];
  
     {No"va An*dro"me*dae}[1885];
  
     {No"va Au*ri"gae}[1891-92];
  
     {No"va Per"se*i}[1901]. There are two novae called {Nova
        Persei}. They are:
     (a) A small nova which appeared in 1881.
     (b) An extraordinary nova which appeared in Perseus in 1901.
         It was first sighted on February 22, and for one night
         (February 23) was the brightest star in the sky. By July
         it had almost disappeared, after which faint surrounding
         nebulous masses were discovered, apparently moving
         radially outward from the star at incredible velocity.
         [Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  nova
       n : a star that ejects some of its material in the form of a
           cloud and become more luminous in the process
       [also: {novae} (pl)]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  40 Moby Thesaurus words for "nova":
     Beehive, Cepheid variable, Hertzsprung-Russell diagram, Hyades,
     Messier catalog, NGC, Pleiades, Seven Sisters, absolute magnitude,
     binary star, black hole, double star, dwarf star, fixed star,
     giant star, globular cluster, gravity star, magnitude,
     main sequence star, mass-luminosity law, neutron star,
     open cluster, populations, pulsar, quasar,
     quasi-stellar radio source, radio star, red giant star,
     relative magnitude, sky atlas, spectrum-luminosity diagram, star,
     star catalog, star chart, star cloud, star cluster,
     stellar magnitude, supernova, variable star, white dwarf star
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  Nova
       
           A {minicomputer}(?), introduced some time before
          1978, with four 16-bit {accumulator}s, AC0 to AC3 and a 15 bit
          {program counter}.  A later model also had a 15-bit {stack
          pointer} and {frame pointer}.  AC2 and AC3 could be used for
          indexed addresses and AC3 was used to store the return address
          on a {subroutine} call.  Apart from the small {register set},
          the NOVA was an ordinary {CPU} design.
       
          Memory could be access indirectly through addresses stored in
          other memory locations.  If locations 0 to 3 were used for
          this purpose, they were auto-incremented after being used.  If
          locations 4 to 7 were used, they were auto-decremented.
          Memory could be addressed in 16-bit words up to a maximum of
          32K words (64K bytes).  The instruction cycle time was 500
          {nanoseconds}(?) cycle time for each.  The Nova originally
          used {core memory} though later on they gained {dynamic RAM}.
       
          Like the {PDP-8}, the {Data General} Nova was also copied, not
          just in one, but two implementations - the {Data General
          MN601} and {Fairchild 9440}.  Luckily, the NOVA was a more
          mature design than the PDP-8.
       
          Another CPU, the {PACE}, was based on the NOVA design, but
          featured 16-bit addresses (instead of the Nova's 15), more
          {addressing mode}s and a 10-level {stack} (like the {Intel
          8008}).
       
          [Date, speed, mini?]
       
          (1996-03-01)
       
       

From U.S. Gazetteer (1990) [gazetteer]:

  Nova, OH
    Zip code(s): 44859