Cosmology's best standard candles get even better

A simple new method standardizes the brightness of Type Ia supernovae

		IMAGE: The SuperNova Integral Field Spectrograph (SNIFS) was designed and integrated by SNfactory collaborators based at the University Pierre and Marie Curie (UPMC) in Paris and the University of Lyon. Mounted... Click here for more information.

BERKELEY, CA — Members of the international Nearby Supernova Factory (SNfactory), a collaboration among the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a consortium of French laboratories, and Yale University, have found a new technique that establishes the intrinsic brightness of Type Ia supernovae more accurately than ever before. These exploding stars are the best standard candles for measuring cosmic distances, the tools that made the discovery of dark energy possible.