THE most distant supernova ever observed appears to have blown its top when
the expansion of the Universe was slowing down. Ironically, this observation
boosts the idea that the Universe is filled with “dark energy” that stretches
space and is now making it expand faster. Adam Riess of the Space Telescope
Science Institute in Baltimore and Peter Nugent of the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory in California spotted the explosion in Hubble Space
Telescope data.
Because the Universe is expanding, distant stars and galaxies recede from
Earth and their light is stretched out, pushing it towards the red end of the…
