A
curved mirror is a
mirror with a curved reflective surface, which may be either
convex (bulging outward) or
concave (bulging inward). Most curved mirrors have surfaces that are shaped like part of a
sphere, but other shapes are sometimes used in optical devices. The most common non-spherical type are
parabolic reflectors, found in optical devices such as
reflecting telescopes that need to image distant objects, since spherical mirror systems suffer from
spherical aberration.