The Supernova Legacy Survey

Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) currently provide the most direct evidence for an accelerating Universe and for the existence of an unknown “dark energy” driving this expansion. The 5-year Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS; http://cfht.hawaii.edu/SNLS/) will deliver ~1000 SN Ia detections with well-sampled g’r’i’z’ light curves. Using this definitive dataset, we will obtain a precise measurement of the cosmological parameters (Omega_m, Omega_lambda); our goal is to determine the cosmological equation of state parameter “w” to a statistical precision of +/-0.07, testing theories for the origin of the universal acceleration. In this proceeding, we summarise the progress made during the first full year of the survey operation.