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The billion dollar Hubble Telescope has been assisting astronomers for nearly two decades now, gathering information about our own Milky Way galaxy and the rest of our universe. The entire project has not been without problems, however. Shortly after its launch in 1990, it was discovered that the mirror contained significant spherical aberration that affected the performance of the telescope. A system was developed called COSTAR, Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement, which used two mirrors in the light path to correct for the aberration in the main mirror. With this adaptation, astronomers could achieve the accuracy and clarity that they were hoping for.

Adaptive optics relies upon a secondary set of mirrors that are in place to adjust for errors within the main optical system. While the Hubble is one example of this, our own eyes can benefit from the advances made through adaptive optics. (continue reading…)