A recent study found that a type Ia supernova’s original star could be anywhere from 0.9 to 1.4 times our Sun’s mass. Astronomers use these blasts’ brightnesses to estimate distances, so are those measurements now incorrect?

Not at all! All of astronomers’ careful work to measure type Ia supernova distances still holds up, and the 2011 Nobel laureates in physics get to keep their prizes for using these stellar explosions to find that the universe’s expansion is accelerating. In fact, we now have enough evidence from other methods to show this speed-up even without type Ia supernovae.

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