Development of new optical technologies for astronomy and astrophysics

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Tremendous advances are occurring in astronomy. Astronomers have discovered that the Universe is not only expanding, but accelerating, and from this infer that 75% of its mass is in the form of a mysterious new form of matter called "dark energy". This is in addition to the 20% of the mass that is "dark matter" - unseen because it emits no light. Elucidating the nature of these forms of matter will require observations with new, more powerful telescopes. These future telescopes will also be capable of detecting the very first stars that formed in the Universe some 13 billion years ago. Closer to home, astronomers have discovered more than 200 planets orbiting nearby stars. This is just the tip of the iceberg - future large telescopes are expected to find and study thousands more, and could detect the smaller Earth-like planets that might harbour life.