The dwarf that grew too big

• Autores: Colin Stuart
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2927, 2013, págs. 46-49
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Stuart talks about the exploding stars known as type-1a supernovae. Andy Howell, now at the University of California, Santa Barbara, was at a meeting of the International Astronomical Union presenting his team's latest observations of the exploding stars known as type-la supernovae. They think they know what makes these stellar bombs tick. Above all, they detonate with a similar brightness, a fact that allows them to calibrate distance in the universe. Observations of type-1a supernovae led 15 years ago to one of the landmark discoveries of modern cosmology: that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, fueled by a shadowy agent since dubbed dark energy. Except if what Howell was saying was right, things weren't that simple. He and his colleagues had seen a monstrously bright supernova that exploded all the rules.