Thermonuclear hell.

Now, The Malcontent has to read a lot of science writing (a lot)--most of it very good, but not exactly the kind of writing that grabs you. That's why the cutline for a picture in a New York Times story on supernovas is a welcome refresher:

A three-billion-degree bubble of thermonuclear hell mushrooms upward through a star in the milliseconds of a supernova explosion. Sweeping around the star’s surface, the bubble could collide with itself, setting off a fatal detonation.

Yowza. And it's a good illustration, too.