Though still only in the prototype stage, this flat lens could one day be used on space telescopes, and perhaps even on amateur telescopes.

When light travels from air into a denser medium like water or glass, it will refract towards the normal. When light travels from a denser medium into air, it will refract away from the normal.

Engineers and astronomers at the University of Utah have designed a unique new kind of telescope lens: a flat lens with microscopic etchings to refract light. If the concept can be scaled up ...