A massive star, 40 times heavier than the Sun, dies in a fraction of a second. Its core compresses like a spring squeezed too hard, then snaps back: that's a supernova explosion. But what if the star is also spinning, like a figure skater pulling in their arms, and threaded with a magnetic field, like invisible strings? Scientists simulated 34 such scenarios on a supercomputer to understand how the brightest flashes in the Universe are born.
In simulations without a magnetic field, the explosion failed even with rapid rotation. But add a field stronger than 1.5×10¹² gauss (trillions of times stronger than a fridge magnet), and matter was ejected outward. If the star also spun fast, the threshold dropped: a weaker field sufficed. In the most extreme cases, the explosion released energy close to 10⁵¹ erg — enough to momentarily outshine every star in the galaxy. Such events are called hypernovae, and they likely produce long gamma-ray bursts — narrow beams of radiation visible from across the Universe.
Gravitational waves, ripples in spacetime, also told their story. Their frequency depends mainly on the star's rotation speed, while their amplitude (the strength of the 'ripple') depends on the explosion type and magnetic field. This means future detectors could use gravitational waves to tell a jet from an ordinary explosion, even without seeing the flash itself.
The energy of the most powerful simulated hypernova reached 10⁵¹ erg in 250 milliseconds — more than the Sun will emit over its entire 10-billion-year lifetime.
In the movie 'Interstellar,' the characters observe a supernova, but there are no jets — whereas in the series 'The Expanse,' the protomolecule uses similar jets to move asteroids.