2011年度诺贝尔物理学奖授予了在天体物理研究领域取得杰出成就的美国科学家索尔·波尔马特、拥有美国和澳大利亚双重国籍的科学家布赖恩·施密特以及美国科学家亚当·里斯。他们通过Ia型超新星测距发现宇宙的膨胀是加速的，从而揭示了暗能量的存在。笔者将对人类认识宇宙的过程、Ia型超新星与宇宙加速膨胀、暗能量以及Ia型超新星研究中存在的问题做全面的介绍，并介绍中国学者在该领域的研究进展。文章的最后做了展望。

The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2011 was awarded to Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant type Ia supernovae. This leads to the hypothesis of dark energy. In this paper, we will describe the study history of the Universe, type Ia supernovae and the accelerating expansion of the Universe, dark energy, and the problems in the study of type Ia supernovae. Especially, we also introduce domestic progress and perspective in this field.