TheHigh-Z Supernova Search Team was an internationalcosmology collaboration which usedType Ia supernovae to chart the expansion of theuniverse. The team was formed in 1994 byBrian P. Schmidt, then a post-doctoral research associate at Harvard University, andNicholas B. Suntzeff, a staff astronomer at theCerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile. The original team submitted a proposal on September 29, 1994 calledA Pilot Project to Search for Distant Type Ia Supernova to the CTIO. The team on the first observing proposal comprised:Nicholas Suntzeff (PI);Brian Schmidt (Co-I); (other Co-Is) R. Chris Smith,Robert Schommer,Mark M. Phillips,Mario Hamuy, Roberto Aviles, Jose Maza,Adam Riess,Robert Kirshner, Jason Spyromilio, andBruno Leibundgut. The project was awarded four nights of telescope time on the CTIOVíctor M. Blanco Telescope on the nights of February 25, 1995, and March 6, 24, and 29, 1995. The pilot project led to the discovery of supernova SN1995Y. In 1995, the HZT elected Brian P. Schmidt of theMount Stromlo Observatory which is part of theAustralian National University to manage the team.

The team expanded to roughly 20 astronomers located in the United States, Europe, Australia, and Chile. They used the Víctor M. Blanco telescope to discover Type Ia supernovae out toredshifts ofz = 0.9. The discoveries were verified with spectra taken mostly from the telescopes of theKeck Observatory, and theEuropean Southern Observatory.

In January 1998, Notre Dame astrophysicistPeter Garnavich, then working at theHarvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, led a High-Z team publication that used theHubble Space Telescope to study three high-redshift supernovae.^[1][2] These results indicated that the universe did not contain enough matter to halt its expansion and that the universe would likely expand forever.^[3]

In a May 1998 study led by Adam Riess, the High-Z Team became the first to publish evidence that the expansion of the Universe isaccelerating.^[4] The team later spawned Project ESSENCE led byChristopher Stubbs of Harvard University and theHigher-Z Team in 2002 led by Adam Riess ofJohns Hopkins University andSpace Telescope Science Institute.

In 2011, Riess and Schmidt, along withSaul Perlmutter of theSupernova Cosmology Project, were awarded theNobel Prize in Physics for this work.^[5]

• 1998:Breakthrough of the Year,Science magazine
• 2006:Shaw Prize
• 2007:Gruber Prize in Cosmology
• 2011:Nobel Prize in Physics
• 2011:Albert Einstein Medal
• 2015:Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics
• 2015:Wolf Prize in Physics

• Mount Stromlo Observatory and theAustralian National University
  • Brian P. Schmidt
• CTIO
  • Nicholas Suntzeff
  • Robert Schommer
  • R. Chris Smith
  • Mario Hamuy (1994–1997)
• Las Campanas Observatory
  • Mark M. Phillips (1994–2000)
• Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
  • Alejandro Clocchiatti (starting in 1996)
• University of Chile
  • Jose Maza (1994–1997)
• European Southern Observatory
  • Bruno Leibundgut
  • Jason Spyromilio
• University of Hawaii
  • John Tonry (starting in 1996)
• University of California, Berkeley
  • Alexei Filippenko (starting in 1996)
  • Weidong Li (starting in 1999)
• Space Telescope Science Institute
  • Adam Riess
  • Ron Gilliland (1996–2000)
• University of Washington
  • Christopher Stubbs (starting in 1995)
  • Craig Hogan (starting in 1995)
  • David Reiss (1995–1999)
  • Alan Diercks (1995–1999)
• Harvard University
  • Christopher Stubbs (starting in 2003)
  • Robert Kirshner
  • Thomas Matheson (starting 1999)
  • Saurabh Jha (starting 1997)
  • Peter Challis
• University of Notre Dame
  • Peter Garnavich
  • Stephen Holland (starting 2000)

• High-Z Supernova Search Team Mainsite

• International research institutes
• Physical cosmology

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from August 2021