Might be a massive change in worldview coming up. In short: the Type 1A supernova (which I yapped about HERE about 3 years ago) has long been considered a “standard candle.” In short, they are caused by gas being dumped on a white dwarf by a nearby “living” star. At a certain point so much hydrogen builds up on the white dwarf that a runaway fusion reaction occurs within the carbon in the white dwarf. Since this is a mass-dependant event (1.38 times solar mass), it has been considered that every supernova like this would be pretty much a carbon -copy (see what I did there) of every other. As a result, when a Type 1A supernova is spotted and recognized – by a distinctive light curve – astronomers can determine how far away the event was based on the relative brightness of it. As a result of *that,* the universe has been mapped out in 3D. And as a result of that mapping, the expansion of the universe, which should be slowing due to gravity, has been found to perhaps be *accelerating.* This has been attributed to a mysterious “phantom energy” that, in the course of time, will cause the entire universe to fly apart in a “Big Rip.”

But now it appears that there *may* in fact be more than one type of Type 1A supernova:

Accelerating universe? Not so fast

It appears that there might in fact be two types of Type 1A supernova, based on examination of the light curves in ultraviolet. If this is the case, then *some* of the acceleration of the universe might be negated. The writeup indicates that this won’t completely eliminate the notion of phantom energy, but it might be weakened substantially. And thus the universe might last a little longer.