SN2011fe

36 AUSTRALIAN SKY & TELESCOPE July 2019

‘STANDARD’ CANDLES by Shannon Hall

B. J. FULTON (2); EXPLOSION GRAPHIC: TATIANAZAETS / ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS

Type Ia supernovae — the cosmic mileposts that helped prove the universe is

accelerating — are not as uniform as astronomers once thought they were.

PINWHEEL LIGHTS UP In August

2011 a white dwarf exploded in M101

as a Type Ia supernova.

Cosmıc Fuse

Lighting a