Jet-powered explosion of a red supergiant
The jet shown here is just about to overtake the supernova shock nine seconds after being launched. The jet is powered by one tenth of a percent (0.001) of the rest mass energy which is falling through the inner boundary in the equatorial region (black). The colors represent the logarithm of radial velocity in kilometers per second. The fastest material (red) is travelling at nearly half the speed of light. The spherical blue region is the supernova explosion which contains more than 2.5x10^50 ergs of energy and is traveling at a few thousand kilometers per second. The thin red circle represents the edge of the carbon/oxygen core of the star. The rest of the star exterior to the circle is composed primarily of helium.
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