A new supernova was discovered in a nearby galaxy in October of 2012, and it’s recently been identified as a type Ia supernova. Astronomers and astrophysicists are interested in the type of supernova because there are several ways a supernova can occur, and they are categorized by type.
Supernova
The light of a supernova tells us what type it is. One type, known as type Ia, has a standard brightness, and we can use that fact to measure galactic distances.