Observational evidence of the accelerated expansion of the universe

The discovery of cosmic acceleration is one of the most important developments in modern cosmology. The observation, thirteen years ago, that type la supernovae appear dimmer that they would have been in a decelerating universe followed by a series of independent observations involving galaxies and cluster of galaxies as well as the cosmic microwave background, all point in the same direction: we seem to be living in a flat universe whose expansion is currently undergoing an acceleration phase. In this article, we review the various observational evidences, most of them gathered in the last decade, and the improvements expected from projects currently collecting data or in preparation. (c) 2012 Academie des sciences. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.