Determining the Distance to the Virgo Cluster using Type Ia Supernovae

Type Ia supernovae are very useful tools in astrophysics and cosmology, as they are well known as standardizable candles and used as an important rung on the cosmic distance ladder. As standardizable candles, Type Ia supernovae are thought to be all similar, as they all have a peak luminosity that is correlated with the decline rate of their light curve. I focus on supernovae found in the Virgo cluster, as the galaxy cluster hosts the largest number of discovered and observed Type Ia supernovae, and has been previously used to determine measurements of the Hubble constant locally. I will present the distance moduli of 25 Type Ia supernovae found in the Virgo galaxy cluster. The population on which I focus contains a diverse set of observations over various surveys, including Pantheon+, LOSS, and Foundation, and spans in discovery dates from 1939 to the early 2010s. Comparing distance moduli and light curve fit parameters across the population, I determine the three-dimensional structure of the galaxy cluster in order to debias the average distance. With these measurements, I constrain the overall distance to the Virgo cluster. Finding distances to galaxy clusters is an important cosmological tool as it allows us to determine the expansion rate of the Universe as well as learn about the galaxy or cluster itself.