Development of new optical technologies for astronomy and astrophysics

天文学正在取得巨大的进步。天文学家发现，宇宙不仅在膨胀，而且在加速，由此推断，其75%的质量是以一种神秘的新形式物质的形式存在的，这种新形式的物质被称为“暗能量”。这还不包括质量的20%，也就是“暗物质”--因为它不发光而看不见。要阐明这些物质形式的本质，需要用新的、更强大的望远镜进行观测。这些未来的望远镜还将能够探测到大约130亿年前在宇宙中形成的第一批恒星。在更近的地方，天文学家发现了200多颗围绕附近恒星运行的行星。这只是冰山一角--未来的大型望远镜有望发现和研究数千颗更多的行星，并可能探测到可能蕴藏生命的较小的类地行星。

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.