Conventional lenses use refraction to focus light. Refraction is when light changes direction as it passes from one medium to another – it is the reason light bends when it enters water. In contrast, ...

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 ...

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 ...

TROY, N.Y. — 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 ...

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 ...

Researchers have designed a new kind of telescope that is a cheaper, lighter and more powerful option than creating telescopes using ever-larger mirrors. With a fleet of the new space telescopes, they ...

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 ...