ANTIFREEZE could help take the twinkle out of stars viewed through ground-based telescopes.
Atmospheric disturbances can blur astronomical images, so the best telescopes have systems that continuously measure these distortions and adapt the shape of their mirror slightly to keep the image sharp. Such systems are expensive, however, and cannot always deform the mirror into an ideal shape.
Now Anna Ritcey of Laval University in Quebec, Canada, has made a liquid adaptive mirror. It contains magnetic particles suspended in ethylene glycol, a syrupy liquid widely used in antifreeze. The fluid supports a film of silver nanoparticles to form a stable…
