The Accelerating Universe

Science

In 1998 two rival teams of astronomers set out to measure how fast the universe's expansion was slowing down. What they found instead shook cosmology to its core: the expansion is speeding up.

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11
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5–10 min
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Q1 Question 1 of 11

What is a Type Ia supernova, and why is it useful for measuring cosmic distances?

Q2 Question 2 of 11

What did astronomers expect to find when they measured the expansion history of the universe using Type Ia supernovae in the 1990s?

Q3 Question 3 of 11

What did the two supernova teams actually observe in 1998?

Q4 Question 4 of 11

Who won the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the accelerating expansion?

Q5 Question 5 of 11

What is dark energy?

Q6 Question 6 of 11

What fraction of the universe's total energy content does dark energy represent?

Q7 Question 7 of 11

What does the term standard candle mean in astronomy?

Q8 Question 8 of 11

What is the correct breakdown of the universe's energy budget?

Q9 Question 9 of 11

Why was having two independent teams discover the accelerating expansion important for the scientific community?

Q10 Question 10 of 11

What does the accelerating expansion tell us about the future of the universe, in the simplest scenario?

Q11 Question 11 of 11

What makes Type Ia supernovae useful as distance indicators across billions of light-years?