This bendable space mirror can have its shape shifted to compensate for manufacturing or alignment errors within orbital telescopes or temperature-driven distortions.
Astronomy
Nov 12, 2020
0
10
A recently deployed DARPA CubeSat seeks to demonstrate technology that could improve imaging of distant objects in space and allow powerful space telescopes to fit into small satellites. DARPA's Deformable Mirror (DeMi) CubeSat ...
Astronomy
Jul 29, 2020
0
28
In a recent test, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope fully deployed its primary mirror into the same configuration it will have when in space.
Astronomy
Mar 31, 2020
3
737
On schedule to launch in the mid-2020s, NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) mission will help uncover some of the biggest mysteries in the cosmos. The state-of-the-art telescope on the WFIRST spacecraft will ...
Astronomy
Aug 29, 2019
0
16
The secondary mirror—visible in the top right corner of the image—is among the most important pieces of equipment on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and is essential to the success of the mission.
Astronomy
Aug 21, 2019
1
86
In order to do groundbreaking science, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope must first perform an extremely choreographed series of deployments, extensions, and movements that bring the observatory to life shortly after launch. ...
Space Exploration
Aug 6, 2019
1
597
A team of researchers from the University of Glasgow, the University of Strathclyde and Hobart and William Smith Colleges has developed a new coating for mirrors used on gravity detectors that is 25 times less noisy than ...
After nearly 16 years of exploring the cosmos in infrared light, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope will be switched off permanently on Jan. 30, 2020. By then, the spacecraft will have operated for more than 11 years beyond its ...
Astronomy
Jun 13, 2019
1
143
Twenty-five years ago this week, NASA held its collective breath as seven astronauts on space shuttle Endeavour caught up with the Hubble Space Telescope 353 miles (568 kilometers) above Earth. Their mission: to fix a devastating ...
Astronomy
Dec 5, 2018
0
334
In order to observe billions of faint galaxies and investigate the nature of the dark Universe, ESA's pioneering Euclid mission will require state-of-the-art optics. The first optical element to be delivered, the telescope's ...
Astronomy
Nov 19, 2018
0
8
