How supernovae became the basis of observational cosmology

TL;DR

This paper reviews the historical development of the luminosity-decline relationship in Type Ia supernovae, highlighting its significance in observational cosmology and the advancements enabled by CCD technology.

Contribution

It provides a historical overview of the discovery and confirmation of the luminosity-decline relationship in Type Ia supernovae, emphasizing technological progress.

Findings

The luminosity-decline relationship was independently discovered in the 1970s.

CCD cameras improved the accuracy of this relationship.

Mark Phillips confirmed the relationship with better data.

Abstract

This paper is dedicated to the discovery of one of the most important relationships in supernova cosmology - the relation between the peak luminosity of Type Ia supernovae and their luminosity decline rate after maximum light. The history of this relationship is quite long and interesting. The relationship was independently discovered by the American statistician and astronomer Bert Woodard Rust and the Soviet astronomer Yury Pavlovich Pskovskii in the 1970s. Using a limited sample of Type I supernovae they were able to show that the brighter the supernova is, the slower its luminosity declines after maximum. Only with the appearance of CCD cameras could Mark Phillips re-inspect this relationship on a new level of accuracy using a better sample of supernovae. His investigations confirmed the idea proposed earlier by Rust and Pskovskii.