Most Distant Supernova May Shed Light on Dark Energy
UDS10Wil is ten billion light-years from Earth.
The faint, near-infrared speck of light from this ancient beacon, dubbed UDS10Wil, now pushes back the previous record-holder by 350 million light-years.
The newfound supernova, along with seven other stellar blasts more than nine billion light-years out, is part of a three-year Hubble survey of faraway supernovae.
These eight faraway phenomena appear to be Type Ia supernovae, which are used as "standard candles" because they emit approximately the same amount of energy in the form of light whether they're in a galaxy close to us or billions of light-years away. The small differences that exist can be calibrated.
This means astronomers can observe how bright they appear, compare that with how bright they should be, and use the difference to deduce how far
