How are supernovae named?

Historically, it was pretty predictable: If there was a supernova in a given year, it was SN(that year). For example, SN1054 gave us the Crab Nebula. read more

Looking at Rochester Astronomy's Latest Supernovae page, here a few examples of discovery names and who discovered them: CSS151008: 001611+153658 - good ol' Catalina Sky Survey. Discovery date, followed by right ascension 00: 16: 11 and declination +15: 36: 58. read more

Supernova, plural supernovae or supernovas, any of a class of violently exploding stars whose luminosity after eruption suddenly increases many millions of times its normal level. Composite image of Kepler's Nova, or Kepler's Supernova, taken by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. read more

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 that supernova. The name is the marker SN followed by the year of discovery, suffixed with a one or two-letter designation. read more