[en] High Mach number, radiatively cooled jets of astrophysical interest have be en produced using intense laser irradiation of gold, iron, aluminum, and plastic cone targets. The cone targets were impinged with high-power (∼10¹⁵ W/cm²) laser radiation at the Lawrence Livermore Nova laser facility and GEKKO-XII laser facility at the Institute of Laser Engineering in Japan. The evolution of the jets was imaged in emission and in radiography, and the temperature was measured with Thomson scattering. Comparison with numerical simulations shows that radiative cooling is a dominant mechanism in the collapse of high-Z material plasma jets on axis, with temperatures plummeting and peak densities increasing. In dimensionless terms, the gold jet is similar to radiative astrophysical jets. This jet data can be used as a benchmark to test radiative astrophysical computer codes