ALL supernovae are not created equal, and those that exploded roughly 5
billion years ago may have shone less brightly than the supernovae blasting away
today, claims a team of astronomers. The result calls into question the idea
that the Universe is expanding ever more rapidly.
Until two years ago, most astronomers assumed that the speed at which the
Universe is expanding was slowing down because of the gravity of the matter
within it. But then two teams of astronomers studying supernovae made a
mind-bending discovery. They found that the Universe is apparently growing at an
ever-increasing rate. Theorists have…
