A new imaging instrument built to probe the greatest mysteries of the universe has been put to the test and, thanks to this, we will be able to see the largest photos ever taken. The focal plane of what will be the world’s largest digital camera has photographed its first 3,200 megapixel images (of a broccoli, as we can see a little below), and the team is now preparing to install this array of sensors in a ultrasensitive telescope capable of detecting objects 100 million times fainter than what can be seen with the naked eye.
The world’s largest and most powerful digital camera has been developed at the US Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory since 2015. This device is the centerpiece of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory currently under construction in Chile, which will pass 10 years gathering the widest, fastest and deepest views of the night sky as we have ever seen before.
The focal plane extends 61 cm wide ; it is large enough to capture a portion of the sky the size of 40 full moons and detect astronomical objects with such sensitivity as if we ourselves were seeing a candle thousands of kilometers away.
These images are so large that it would take 378 4K quality television screens to view one of them in full size.
The resolution is so high that you can see a golf ball from about 15 miles away.
“This achievement is one of the most important of the entire Rubin Observatory Project,” says Steven Kahn, director of the SLAC observatory. “The completion of the focal plane of the LSST camera and its successful testing is a major victory for the camera team that will allow Rubin Observatory to deliver next-generation astronomical science.”
The device, once completed, will be the size of an SUV, and the researchers plan to begin final testing in mid-2021.
