Hollywood ring-shaped explosions are totally real!!

[mmcirvin]

Supernova 1987a lights up a ring of matter thrown off before the star exploded. It's pretty. Probably ten thousand civilizations were destroyed so that Arthur C. Clarke could write melancholy things about them.

Comments

[schwa242.livejournal.com]

Wow! George Lucas got it right by adding big orange rings around scary space explosions.

[bram.livejournal.com]

This is something my thesis advisor Richard McCray worked on a lot... so if you see that name, it's my advisor!