Supernova Cosmology Project
(SCP)
(used supernova data to determine a history of the universe's expansion)
The Supernova Cosmology Project (SCP) was a project begun
in the 1990s to determine the history of the Hubble parameter,
which determined that the expansion of the universe has accelerated.
Previous general thought had been that the universe's expansion
would be decelerating, due to the sum of the universe's gravity,
and the intent of this project was to determine the rate of that
deceleration, with special interest regarding whether this deceleration
is such that expansion will eventually cease and contraction begin.
The project's strategy was to collect data on the frequency of
Type Ia supernovae against redshift, producing a kind of
Hubble diagram; conceptually, any bending in the diagram's slope
would reveal past changes in the pattern of expansion.
The supernova search was carried out with the Blanco 4m
telescope, with follow-up spectroscopy and photometry
on other telescopes, to record light curves.
The project's determined that the expansion has accelerated rather
than decelerated was unexpected, but was confirmed by another
independent such effort carried out at the same time
by the High-z Supernova Search Team.
This conclusion gave rise to the term dark energy,
for whatever is making that happen.
(project,survey,supernovae,cosmology,past)
Further reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova_Cosmology_Project
http://supernova.lbl.gov/
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009AIPC.1166...53G/abstract
Prefix | Example | | |
SCP | SCP 06F6 | | |
|
Referenced by page:
supernova survey
Index