Adaptive optics, a technique used in professional astronomical observatories, corrects for atmospheric distortion of starlight, leading to sharper images. This is achieved not through telescope ...

FROSTI is a new adaptive optics system that precisely corrects distortions in LIGO’s mirrors caused by extreme laser power.

Before And After: These near-infrared images of Uranus show the planet as seen without adaptive optics (left) and with the technology turned on (right). It used to be that if astronomers wanted to get ...

Before And After: These near-infrared images of Uranus show the planet as seen without adaptive optics (left) and with the technology turned on (right). (Courtesy of Heidi B. Hammel and Imke de Pater) ...

It used to be that if astronomers wanted to get rid of the blurring effects of the atmosphere, they had to put their telescopes in space. But a technology called adaptive optics has changed all that.