Adaptive secondary!

But once Steward Observatory researchers realized how to do it, they also realized they could make big deformable mirrors for use in space. Steward Observatory has been developing new space-based optics as a spin-off of this ground-based technology.

Not sure why you would need, or how you would use adaptive optics in space, unless you were doing earth observation. Can anybody help me with this one?

and

On Jan. 22, Hinz and UA astronomer emeritus Bill Hoffmann took Hinz' nulling interferometer called "BLINC" and Hoffman's infrared "MIRAC" camera to the MMT, while UA, Italian and Smithsonian Institution MMTO staff ran the new adaptive optics.



"Without adaptive optics, nulling interferometry is able to suppress the star to only 5 to 10 percent of its original brightness," Hinz said. "In addition, the intensity of the star rapidly changes because of atmospheric turbulence, so the star appears to blink on and off."



and

Hinz, who used the 6.5-meter MMT as two 3-meter sub-telescopes, said the initial Jan.22 observations were successful in showing the power of adaptive optics to stabilize the star and suppress all but two percent of its light.



"Once we've refined this technique, we should be able to stabilize and suppress all but one-tenth of a percent, down to three-hundredths of a percent of the starlight and see faint, planetary dust disks much like our own solar system around nearby stars," Hinz said."



If these trends continue, Space-based observing may image and analyze the near-by earth-likes before the big space telescopes get off the ground.

Still need the space-based solution for a lot of the spectrum (including lots of the IR).