Abstract
A new era is emerging in ground-based optical astronomy. No less than eleven telescopes of 8-m aperture or greater will be in operation when we greet the new millinium. Recent advances in large arrays of visible and near-infrared detectors make for exciting prospects in new science and discovery. However, even though these telescopes will have great light-gathering power, wavefront distortions induced by atmospheric turbulence will limit their angular resolution to that of a telescope having an aperture of 1020 cm. As the Hubble Space Telescope has dramatically demonstrated, diffraction-limited resolution is the key to increasing scientific output and enabling us to discover new phenomena in the universe. The ability to achieve diffraction- limited operation of the largest aperture ground-based telescopes would be paramount to a revolution in astronomy.
© 1996 Optical Society of America
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