Capturing Ancient Light
The universe is an electromagnetic spectrum, and visible light is merely a sliver of the data available to us. Modern astronomy requires a fleet of specialized instruments to capture radio waves, infrared heat, x-rays, and gamma radiation.
Ground-based observatories utilize adaptive optics—firing lasers into the mesosphere to measure atmospheric distortion and physically deforming mirrors hundreds of times per second to compensate, yielding images as sharp as those taken from space.
