Distant Supernovae

These Hubble Space Telescope images pinpoint three distant supernovae, which exploded and died billions of years ago. Scientists are using these faraway light sources to estimate if the universe was expanding at a faster rate long ago and is now slowing down.

Images of SN 1997cj are in the left hand column; SN 1997ce, in the middle; and SN 1997ck, on the right. All images were taken by the Hubble telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The top row of images are wider views of the supernovae. The supernovae were discovered in April 1997 in a ground-based survey at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii.