{"id":712581,"date":"2026-06-03T12:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T12:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/712581\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T12:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T12:52:11","slug":"ai-based-method-to-unlock-the-secrets-of-supernova-light-and-universe-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/712581\/","title":{"rendered":"AI-based method to unlock the secrets of supernova light and Universe expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TypeType Ia supernovae are a class of exploding stars that play a central role in measuring cosmic distances. Image: Adobe. \"Kerry Kerry Taylor-Smith<\/a> 03\/06\/2026 10:00 4 min <\/p>\n

Type Ia supernovae are cosmologically valuable, giving astronomers a glimpse into the expansion of the Universe. <\/p>\n

But as next-generation observatories come online, astronomers are faced with much larger datasets than they can handle. To overcome this, researchers have developed a new AI-based approach that offers a powerful new way to analyse Type Ia supernovae.<\/p>\n

Measuring cosmic distance<\/p>\n

Type Ia supernovae are a class of exploding stars that play a central role in measuring cosmic distances. <\/p>\n

They act as \u201cstandardisable candles\u201d, with astronomers comparing their brightness to track how the Universe has expanded. This makes them a key tool for mapping the evolution of the Universe.<\/p>\n

But interpreting the signals from these supernovae is tricky. The observed light is impacted by the properties of the parent star, the surrounding environment and the host galaxy where the explosion occurs.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

These effects are usually untangled using detailed spectroscopic observations which measure how much light arrives and how it is distributed across different wavelengths. <\/p>\n

But this is time-consuming, and with next-generations observatories like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory expected to discover hundreds of thousands of Type Ia supernovae each year, the resulting in datasets will be massive.<\/p>\n

\u201cCollecting detailed, homogeneous spectra at multiple epochs for very large samples will be impossible, given the sheer volume of data expected in the coming years,\u201d explained Professor Roberto Trotta, Imperial College London and the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA).<\/p>\n

\u201cFor this reason, it will become increasingly important to extract reliable information even from photometric data alone \u2013 that is, from the brightness of supernovae.\u201d<\/p>\n

AI-based model to expand the Universe<\/p>\n

Astronomers are currently unable to unlock the full potential of these surveys. They use only a small fraction of supernovae \u2013 as little as 1% \u2013 for which detailed spectroscopic measurements can be obtained. <\/p>\n

This new method \u2013 CIGaRS (Combined Inference and Galaxy-Related Standardisation) \u2013 could change that. It uses simulations and machine learning to link what astronomers see, and the underlying physical properties of the Universe within a single, self-consistent model for the first time.<\/p>\n

\"AstronomersAstronomers can use the light from supernova to determine how the Universe is expanding. Image: Adobe.<\/p>\n

Astronomers can now also estimate distances to the supernovae using brightness measurements alone, achieving a level of precision four times better than traditional methods.<\/p>\n

In testing, researchers gathered a catalogue of over 1,500 selected supernovae \u2013 around the size of current catalogues \u2013 and expanded it by roughly ten times to resemble what could be collected in a single month in future observations.<\/p>\n

The method recovered several linked properties at once, including the expansion of the Universe and the influence of galactic environments on supernovae. Its precision is similar to that gathered from previous analysis based on smaller samples of spectroscopic measurements using images alone.<\/p>\n

News reference<\/p>\n

CIGaRS I: combined simulation-based inference from type Ia supernovae and host photometry<\/a>, Nature Astronomy, May 2026. Karchev, K., et al. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Type Ia supernovae are a class of exploding stars that play a central role in measuring cosmic distances.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[305,64,63,128,285,62740,20374],"class_list":["post-712581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-astronomy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-space","tag-supernova","tag-universe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=712581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}