Space Surveillance Telescope.

The Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have just created the world’s sharpest telescope:

 The Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) uses image-capturing CCD (curved charge coupled device) technology and boasts a wide field-of-view and large-aperture optics.

This combination helps the SST to move easily so it can quickly scan the sky - perfect for watching for strange spacecrafts or debris "The SST will give us in a matter of nights the space surveillance data that current telescopes take weeks or months to provide," explained Air Force Lt. Col. Travis Blake, DARPA's Space Surveillance Telescope program manager.

Beyond providing faster data collection, the SST is very sensitive to light, which allows it to see faint objects in deep space that currently are impossible to observe.

The detection and tracking of faint objects requires a large aperture and fast optics. The SST uses a 3.5 meter primary mirror, which is large enough to achieve the desired sensitivity.

The system is an f/1.0 optical design, with a large-area mosaic CCD camera constructed from the curved imagers and a high-speed shutter allowing for fast scanning at the high sensitivity.

Some of the missions assigned to the SST include watching for debris in low earth orbit to help avoid satellite collisions, tracking objects in deep space and taking wide-angle pictures of stars and comets for astronomers.

 The Pentagon's DARPA has begun deploying new ground-based telescopes that can take wide-angle views of small deep-space objects and keep the space sentinels safe.

"Currently we have a 'soda straw' view of deep space, where we can only see one narrow segment of space at a time," Blake said. "The Space Surveillance Telescope should give us a much wider 'windshield' view of deep space objects, significantly enhancing our space situational awareness."

DARPA's telescope uses curved charge coupled device (CCD) technology similar to what exists in digital cameras. That helps create a compact size which helps the new telescope survey the sky more rapidly on its moveable mount – it represents one of the most agile telescopes ever built for its size.

The telescope's CCD camera consists of curved imagers and a high-speed shutter that allows for both fast scans and high sensitivity. Such sensitivity helps the telescope detect and track the very small, very faint objects zipping across the wide-angle view of space.

Ultimately, the new telescope aims to find more of the space objects in the geosynchronous region of space around the Earth's equator. That would allow the Pentagon to better keep track of collision dangers for its satellites – at least until the expensive spacecraft get better shields.