740 Type Ia supernovae tagged posts

The universe may not be expanding at an accelerating rate, as previously thought, but rather, at a constant rate, suggests new research. (Stock image) Credit: © watoson / Fotolia

5 years ago, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to 3 astronomers for their discovery, in 1990s, that the universe is expanding at an accelerating pace. Their conclusions were based on analysis of Type Ia supernovae – the spectacular thermonuclear explosion of dying stars – picked up by the Hubble and large ground-based telescopes. It led to the widespread acceptance of the idea that the universe is dominated by ‘dark energy’ that drives this accelerating expansion.

Now, a team led by Prof Subir Sarkar of Oxford University’s Dept of Physics has cast doubt on this standard cosmological concept...