SF Citations for OED

Full record for go nova v.

Definition	(of a star) to become a nova; (more generally, of a star, planet, etc.) to explode.
OED requirements	antedating 1942
Comment	Mike Christie submitted a cite from a 1977 reprint of Harry Harrison's "Bill, the Galactic Hero"; the cite does not appear in the 1964 magazine version. Janet Walz submitted a cite from a 1979 reprint of Poul Anderson's "Ensign Flandry". Edward Bornstein submitted a cite from a 1967 reprint of Robert Sheckley's "Mindswap", and subsequently verified the cite in the 1966 first edition. Fred Galvin identified a cite from Isaac Asimov's "The Last Question"; Mike Christie submitted this cite from a 1974 reprint. Fred Galvin subsequently verified the cite in the original magazine appearance in the November 1956 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly. Mike Christie submitted a 1942 cite from an editorial by John Campbell in Astounding. Earliest cite in the OED: 1968.
Last modified	6 July, 2008

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1942 J. W. Campbell Supernova Centaurus in Astounding Sci. Fiction Feb. 6/2	We've considered what might happen if Sol itself went nova. If it should go supernova, no worse could happen; Earth and all life on it would be fused and volatilized in either case.
1966 E. E. Smith Skylark DuQuesne vi. 43	Whether or not a Tellus-type planet ordinarily becomes unfit to support human life before its sun goes nova is not surely known. Nor does it matter very much; for, long before either event occurs, the human race involved has developed a faster-than-light drive and has at its disposal dozens or hundreds of Earth-like planets upon which even subhuman life has not yet developed.
1972 J. Blish Star Trek 5 5	He has devised a simple, compact method for making even stable suns go nova.
1993 K. S. Robinson Red Mars ii. 73	Now that they were about to reach Mars, the expedition was getting a lot more TV time, and the situation was about to ‘go nova’, as Mission Control put it.
1993 K. S. Robinson Red Mars ii. 67	The situation was about to ‘go nova’, as Mission Control put it.
1997 R. Hatch & C. Golden Battlestar Galactica: Armageddon v. 63	The Lords of the House of Kobol were the first to realize that their system's star was going to go nova. They had yahren to plan their exodus.