Does the Bi-modality of UV-Optical Colors of Normal Type Ia Supernovae change the Accelerating Universe?

通过将Ia型超新星的地面光学和近红外数据与美国宇航局雨燕卫星的紫外数据相结合，研究小组将在考虑到新发现的Ia型超新星亚群后，检查附近超新星的固有亮度。这些信息将被用来验证到遥远星系的距离，从而验证宇宙膨胀的加速度。这将测试由加速度推断出的暗能量的数量。新的超新星观测结果将通过Twitter向公众发布，PI将为初中和高中制作教学模块，其中包括这项研究中令人兴奋的概念。该项目的关键是重新审视用于确定每个超新星的视距尘埃消光和每个超新星的绝对星等的方法，这次重点是近紫外与光学区双模态。强调了避免使用颜色来估计灭绝的技术，因为基本发现是两组之间的颜色差异。这些发现将有助于更好地从理论上理解超新星爆炸物理学。

By combining ground-based optical and near-infrared data of type Ia supernovae with UV data from NASA's Swift satellite, the research team will check the intrinsic brightness of nearby supernovae after accounting for a newly discovered sub-grouping of type Ia supernovae. This information will be used to verify the distances to faraway galaxies and thus the amount of acceleration of the expansion of the Universe. This will test the amount of dark energy inferred by that acceleration. New observations of supernovae will be distributed to the public via a Twitter feed, and the PI will produce teaching modules for middle school and high school that include exciting concepts from this research.The key to this project is to revisit the methods employed to determine the line-of-sight dust extinction to each supernova and the absolute magnitude of each supernova, this time with an emphasis on near-UV versus optical region bi-modality. Techniques that avoid using colors to estimate extinction are emphasized as the fundamental finding is a color difference between the two groups. These findings will then contribute to a better theoretical understanding of supernova explosion physics.