Maybe they were wrong in thinking that Type Ia supernovae were not standard candles. Maybe Leibundgut, who after all had been studying other Type Ia while they were busy with the Type II 1987 A, was right. And if he was right, then maybe they could use nearby Type Ia supernovae to measure the Hubble parameter—the current rate of the universe’s expansion. And if that program worked, they could go to farther supernovae to measure the deceleration parameter—the rate at which the expansion was slowing down.
