Supernova 'Mingus' could shed light on dark energy
Astronomers have spotted the most distant supernova ever seen. Nicknamed "Mingus", it was described at the 221st American Astronomical Society meeting in the US. Formally called SN SCP-0401, the supernova was something of a chance find in a survey carried out in part by the Supernova Cosmology Project (SCP) using the Hubble space telescope, first undertaken in 2004. Read more
The Farthest Supernova Yet for Measuring Cosmic History
What if you had a "Wayback Television Set" and could watch an entire month of ancient prehistory unfold before your eyes in real time? David Rubin of the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) presented just such a scenario to the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting in Long Beach, CA, when he announced the discovery of a striking astronomical object: a Type Ia supernova with a redshift of 1.71 that dates back 10 billion years in time. Labelled SN SCP-0401, nicknamed "Mingus," the supernova is exceptional for its detailed spectrum and precision colour measurement, unprecedented in a supernova so distant. Read more