The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) National Accelerator Laboratory has completed the LSST digital camera, the largest of its kind in the world, with an imaging capacity of 3200 megapixels.
This device will be installed at an observatory in Chile with the aim of revealing some of the deepest mysteries of the universe. Developed over more than two decades and with U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) approval obtained in 2015, the LSST digital camera incorporates a 2020 rebuilt array consisting of 189 individual 16-megapixel sensors.
How does the LSST digital camera work?
[post_relacionado]Following the complete assembly of its components, including frame, lens and sensor, the camera now features 201 CCD sensors in its 3.2-gigapixel array, with pixels approximately 10 microns wide. The camera, sealed in a vacuum chamber and equipped with a front lens more than 1.5 meters in diameter, has been prepared to capture images of the unknown areas of the universe with an unprecedented level of detail.
With an optical system that includes three aspherical mirrors and quick-change filters, the camera is optimized to capture light in wavelengths from ultraviolet to near-infrared, allowing for 15-second exposure shots every 20 seconds.
Aaron Roodman, deputy director of the project at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Rubin, noted that the camera can capture images so detailed that it would be able to identify a golf ball from 15 miles away, covering a portion of the sky seven times wider than the full Moon.
The following video shows how the camera will work.
Its front lens measures more than 1.5 meters in diameter. Source: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
The camera will be installed on the Simonyi Telescope.
With a size and weight comparable to that of a small car, the camera will be shipped to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile to be mounted on the Simonyi Telescope, contributing to astronomical efforts to explore mysteries such as weak gravitational lensing and understanding the expansion of the universe.
The decade-long project will not only facilitate the understanding of the structure and evolution of the universe and the Milky Way, but will also provide valuable data on smaller objects within our solar system, including the detection of potential asteroid threats.
“More than ever before, broadening our understanding of fundamental physics requires looking farther out into the universe” said Kathy Turner of the Department of Energy’s Cosmic Frontier Program. “With the LSST camera at its core, the Rubin Observatory will delve deeper into the cosmos than ever before and help answer some of the most difficult and important questions in physics today.“.
This advance in digital astronomical technology opens up new possibilities for space exploration. space exploration and for the development of advanced imaging technologies that could have applications in other scientific and technical fields, from medicine to security.
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Source and photo: newatlas.com