Supernovae in fiction

A supernova is a type of stellar event wherein a star—either a massive star or a white dwarf in a binary system—explodes, releasing enormous amounts of energy in a short period of time.

This can at least partially be explained by the earliest science fiction works featuring these phenomena predating the introduction of the term "supernova" as a separate class of event in 1934; before this, any appearance of a "new star" in the sky—as observed by e.g. Tycho Brahe in 1572 and Johannes Kepler in 1604—was referred to as a "nova".

[2][10] The Sun exploding occasionally appears as a background event to explain why humanity has abandoned Earth in favour of colonizing the cosmos,[3] one example being Theodore Sturgeon's 1956 short story "The Skills of Xanadu".

[2][5][16] In Stephen Tall's 1971 short story "The Bear with the Knot on His Tail", such a rescue mission is complicated by the language barrier between the humans and the imperiled aliens.

[2][4] On-screen portrayals of deliberately caused supernovae also appear, which astrophysicist Elizabeth Stanway [Wikidata] attributes to the visual appeal of the resulting explosions.

[3] One example is the 2001 episode "Exodus" of the television series Stargate SG-1, where the event is triggered by a wormhole causing rapid mass loss from the targeted star and thus destabilizing it.

[3] Non-weaponized induced supernovae are portrayed in some stories such as Rob Grant and Doug Naylor's 1989 novel Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers, where the purpose is to use the light from the exploded stars to create an interstellar advertisement.