The Year of Distant Supernovae
Distant supernovae were among topics at the
forefront of astronomy during 1998.
Two independent
groups raced to deploy large telescopes
to scan the sky, discovering and analyzing far-off
supernovae with the promise of calibrating the
geometry of our universe.
The results were surprising -- implying an
unexpected universe
rich in not only
dark matter
(Omega in matter ~ 0.3) but also in
dark energy
(Lambda ~ 0.7).
Skeptics
remain cautious, however,
some waiting for more than a few
high-
redshift
supernovae to light the way, while others
waiting
for verification methods not vulnerable
to the same types of systematic errors.
Pictured
above are several of the distant supernovae that have
ignited modern cosmology.