Closest Type Ia supernova in decades solves a cosmic mystery

Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia's) are the extraordinarily bright and remarkably similar "standard candles" astronomers use to measure cosmic growth, a technique that in 1998 led to the discovery of dark energy – and 13 years ...

Nearest supernova in 27 years explodes in M82 galaxy

(Phys.org) —A supernova has been spotted in the constellation Ursa Major (between the Big and Little Dipper in the night sky) in the M82 galaxy (affectionately known as the cigar galaxy) by a team of students at University ...

The progenitor problem

With so much of our current understanding of the universe based on Type 1a supernovae data, a good deal of current research is focused upon just how standard these supposed standard candles are. To date, the weight of analysis ...

Key link found in Cosmic Distance Ladder

(Phys.org) —When observing the bright explosion of a White Dwarf star in our neighbouring galaxy last year, researchers from The Australian National University collected the largest ever data set on what they recognised ...

Cosmology standard candle not so standard after all

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have turned up the first direct proof that "standard candles" used to illuminate the size of the universe, termed Cepheids, shrink in mass, making them not quite as standard as once thought. The ...

Swift gamma-ray bursts—a 3D step toward standard candles

A new way to use the most powerful explosions in the Universe to calibrate its expansion has been developed by a team of researchers (Sergey Postnikov, Xavier Hernandez from Institute of Astronomy , UNAM, and Michal Ostrowski ...

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