This blue Wolf-Rayet star -- containing about 10 solar masses worth of helium, oxygen and heavier elements -- has depleted its nuclear fuel. This has triggered a Type Ic supernova / gamma-ray burst event.
The core of the star has collapsed, without the star's outer part knowing. A black hole forms inside surrounded by a disk of accreting matter, and, within a few seconds, launched a jet of matter away from the black hole that ultimately made the gamma-ray burst.
Here we see the jet breaking through the outer shell of the star, about nine seconds after its creation. The jet of matter, in conjunction with vigorous winds of newly formed radioactive nickel-56 blowing off the disk inside, shatters the star within seconds. This shattering represents the supernova event.
This blue Wolf-Rayet star -- containing about 10 solar masses worth of helium, oxygen and heavier elements -- has depleted its nuclear fuel. This has triggered a Type Ic supernova / gamma-ray burst event.
Here we see a blinding flash of light as the shell of the star explodes. Over the course of many years, a supernova remnant emerges (as represented by the fiery reddish cloud of gas surrounding the newly formed central black hole or neutron star). A shock wave (represented by an egg-shaped shell) is created by the expanding gases.
Scientists say the gamma-ray burst detected on March 29, 2003, was associated with a hypernova, which is more energetic and expands more rapidly than a supernova does.