Supernova Twins: Making Standard Candles More Standard than Ever
The Nearby Supernova Factory, based at Berkeley Lab, finds a new way to measure cosmological distances with far greater accuracy
Less than 20 years ago the world learned that the universe is expanding ever faster, propelled by dark energy. The discovery was made possible by Type Ia supernovae; extraordinarily bright and remarkably similar in brightness, they serve as “standard candles” essential for probing the universe’s history. (more…)