Born in Athens, Economou first came to America to attend MIT, where he received two masters of science, one in naval architecture and marine engineering, another in shipping and shipbuilding management.
"It takes thousands of years for supernova remnants to evolve, but with this nova we've watched the same kinds of changes over just a few days, " said Kent Wood, a co-author on the Science study from the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC.
Born in 1953 in the southern state of Virginia, Gen Allen graduated with military honours from the US Naval Academy in 1976, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Operations Analysis.