For centuries, lenses have worked the same way: curved glass or plastic bending light to bring images into focus. But traditional lenses have a major drawback—the more powerful they need to be, the ...

Engineers and astronomers at the University of Utah have designed a unique new kind of telescope lens: a flat lens with microscopic etchings to refract light. If the concept can be scaled up, these ...

Astronomers have discovered more than 5,000 planets outside of the solar system to date. The grand question is whether any of these planets are home to life. To find the answer, astronomers will ...

The University of Arizona Richard F. Caris Mirror Laboratory is a world leader in the production of the world's largest telescope mirrors. In fact, it is currently fabricating mirrors for the largest ...

Inspired by a concept for discovering exoplanets with a giant space telescope, a team of researchers is developing holographic lenses that render visible and infrared starlight into either a focused ...

The Dragonfly Telephoto Array installed in New Mexico. It presently uses 48 Canon 400mm lenses (in two arrays), but that number will be increasing by quite a bit. Image by Pieter van Dokkum, Yale ...

An illustration showing the final stage of a possible future giant telescope being created in space using fluids. Studio Ella Maru SHARE NASA is always searching for new ways to extend its ability to ...

When you look at the night sky, do you ever wonder what's going on out there? On a clear night with a dark sky, if moonlight doesn't wash it out, sometimes you can see the arc of the Milky Way. The ...

Telescopes keep getting bigger — and more expensive. But what if there were a better way? One astronomer has suggested a possible work-around: Turn the entire Earth into a telescope lens by using the ...

Chinese satellite will be used for national land surveys, urban planning, environmental management and comprehensive disaster ...