Before our solar system formed or our sun even began to shine, stars halfway across the cosmos were exploding in brilliant flashes of light called supernovas. The light from their death throes traveled for 8 billion light-years and arrived at Earth sometime in the past few years, where it struck Hawaii’s Subaru Telescope and was captured forever in images.
While nearby supernovas are bright enough for even amateur astronomers to spy, these farthest ones require more specialized equipment. Subaru, which is run by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, has a mirror 8.2 meters (27 feet) across, allowing it to peer into the distant universe to spy dim objects. For this study, researchers used its Hyper Suprime-Cam, a 3-ton camera taller than a person to capture the 1,824 supernovas that make up the collection.
The new supernovas are identified in a paper led by Naoki Yasuda from the Kavli Institute ...
