With billions of galaxies in the observable universe — there are dozens of supernovas every night.

Saul's team spent six years perfecting a new system of supernovae on demand.

They took snapshots of thousands of galaxies at once, then repeated them two and a half weeks later.

First, you don't see a supernova.

Now you do.

That's very important, that two and a half weeks, because that guarantees, that everything you find, that's brighter, on the second night than the first, is on the way up.

We can now guarantee that there would not just be one Type 1A supernova, but there would be a half dozen.

Saul now knew exactly where to point one of the world's most powerful telescopes — the Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

He was finally ready to measure the deceleration of the universe.

But by late in 1997, the team was getting some very weird results.