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The New Scientist website reports on a team of physicists from the University of Toronto and Rutgers University, New Jersey, who have managed to mimick a supernova - in a jar.

In one type of supernova, an explosion begins as a bubble of flames buried deep inside a dense star called a white dwarf. Because the flame bubble is lighter than its surroundings, it is highly buoyant, so it rises to the surface in a plume, topped with an accelerating smoke ring. In the video on the New Scientist website, you can see a similar process happening in a self-sustaining reaction of iodate and arsenous acid contained in a jar 9 cenitmetres in diameter.

View the video and full article.

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