The Acceleration of the Expansion of the Universe: A Brief Early History of the Supernova Cosmology Project (SCP)

TL;DR

This paper reviews the decade-long work of the Supernova Cosmology Project that led to the discovery of the universe's accelerated expansion using Type Ia supernovae.

Contribution

It provides a historical overview of the SCP's methods and findings that established the acceleration of the universe's expansion.

Findings

Evidence for accelerated expansion from supernova data

Development of techniques for supernova distance measurement

Impact on cosmological models and understanding of dark energy

Abstract

It is now about 10 years since the evidence, based on Type Ia supernovae, for the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe was discovered. I will discuss some aspects of the work and events in the Supernova Cosmology Project (SCP), during the period 1988 to 1998, which led to this discovery.