Description

Supernova is the first in a series of five exquisitely designed and colored silver coins called The Beauty of the Universe.

Supernova commemorates an astronomical event first recorded over a thousand years ago. In 1054, Chinese and Arabic astronomers noted a rapidly brightening phenomenon, now understood to be a supernova—an immense explosion of a star with a mass about ten times that of our sun.

After millions of years, the star exhausted its hydrogen fuel, and the stabilizing pressure from nuclear fusion ceased, causing the star to collapse under its own gravity. This collapse started in the outer layers and rebounded explosively. The resulting stellar remnant and wind pulsar, known as the Crab Nebula, has since been expanding from the explosion’s center at millions of kilometers per hour.

At the heart of the Crab Nebula is a small, rotating neutron star called the Crab Pulsar. This neutron star, with its powerful magnetic field, emits vast amounts of energy, illuminating the Crab Nebula and creating the spectacular cosmic display of a supernova.

Design: Helmut Andexlinger
Issue date: 15 May 2024