Adaptive optics is the most revolutionary technological breakthrough in astronomy since Galileo’s exploration of the skies 400 years ago. Modern adaptive optics are Micro-Electro-Mechanical (MEM) devices and may contain over 1000 individual little mirrors that can each piston to a different position with the aid of mechanical actuators. These devices can change their shape 1000’s of times a second. In astronomy they allow for distortion correction of starlight that travels millions of light years across the vacuum of space only to get distorted by our atmosphere in the last 150 miles before reaching Earth.