Names of Supernovae
Supernova discoveries are reported to the International Astronomical Union's Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams which sends out a circular with the name it assigns to it. The name is formed by the year of discovery, immediately followed by a one- or two-letter designation. The first 26 supernovae of the year get an upper case letter from A to Z. Afterward, pairs of lower-case letters are used, starting with aa, ab, and so on. Four historical supernovae are known simply by the year they occurred (SN 1006, 1054, 1572, and 1604 ); starting with 1885, the letters are used, even if there was only one supernova detected that year (e.g. SN 1885A, 1907A, etc.) —this last happened with SN 1947A. The standard abbreviation "SN" is an optional prefix. As instruments improve and the number of astronomers (both professional and amateur) searching increases, more and more supernovae are observed each year - currently at least 500 a year. For example, the last supernova of 2007 was SN 2007va, indicating that it was the 572nd supernova found in 2007 (a record year, in fact).
Read more about this topic: Astronomical Naming Conventions
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