We present measurements of the Hubble diagram for 103 Type Ia supernovae (SNe) with redshifts 0.04<z<0.42, discovered during the first season (Fall 2005) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II (SDSS-II) Supernova Survey. These data fill in the redshift "desert" between low- and high-redshift SN Ia surveys. Within the framework of the MLCS2K2 light-curve fitting method, we use the SDSS-II SN sample to infer the mean reddening parameter for host galaxies, R_V_=2.18+/-0.14_stat_+/-0.48_syst_, and find that the intrinsic distribution of host-galaxy extinction is well fitted by an exponential function, P(A_V_)=exp(-A_V_/{tau}V), with {tau}V=0.334+/-0.088mag. We combine the SDSS-II measurements with new distance estimates for published SN data from the ESSENCE survey, the Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS), the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and a compilation of Nearby SN Ia measurements. A new feature in our analysis is the use of detailed Monte Carlo simulations of all surveys to account for selection biases, including those from spectroscopic targeting.

Cone search capability for table J/ApJS/185/32/fits (Light curve fits in MLCS2K2 (table10) and SALT-II (table14) models)