HOW do you measure huge distances in the universe? For decades, scientists have relied on one class of supernova - type Ia - to determine how far away distant galaxies are. All type Ia supernovae reach the same peak intrinsic brightness, so calculating their distance is a simple matter of quantifying their apparent brightness. However, there has been no independent way of checking such huge distances - until now.
Astronomers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California, have for the first time used the light from type II-P supernovae, a more common type, to estimate distances in comparison to Ia supernovae. The work will appear in a forthcoming issue of Astrophysical Journal.
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