The progenitors of core-collapse supernovae suggest thermonuclear origin for the explosions

Understand

Core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) are the explosions of massive stars following the collapse of the stars' iron cores.

• Poznanski (2013) has recently suggested an observational correlation between the ejecta velocities and the inferred masses of the red supergiant progenitors of type II-P explosions, which implies that the kinetic energy of the ejecta ($E_{\textrm{kin}}$) increases with the mass of the progenitor.
• I point out that the same conclusion can be reached from the model-free observed correlation between the ejected $^{56}$Ni masses ($M_{\textrm{Ni}}$) and the luminosities of the progenitors for type II supernovae, which was reported by Fraser et al.
• (2011).