The Gemini 8-meter telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, is one of the new tools astronomers are using to search for the barely-visible. This telescope, along with other NSF-funded observatories—including Arecibo in Puerto Rico and the Very Large Array in New Mexico—enable astronomers to discover and explain the origins of the universe.

Photo by: Tom Sebring, AURA/Gemini Observatory/NOAO/NSF