Friday, 14 October 2022

World’s largest night sky scanning camera unveiled with unprecedented detail

A laboratory in the United States is nearing completion of the world’s largest digital camera, with a 1.65m wide lens and a 3200-megapixel camera.

Scientists at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University are working on the LSST camera, which will capture the night sky in unprecedented detail.

Once completed, the camera will be moved to the Large Integrated Survey Telescope in Chile, where it will be mounted on top of the Simonyi Telescope.

With a field of view of 9.6 square degrees (at stereoscopic angles), about 40 times the size of the Moon as seen from Earth, astronomers will be able to capture the differences in brightness of the 37 billion stars in their field of view. as well as other periodic instabilities that were previously impossible to notice.

Thus, scientists hope that this will allow a new understanding of some of the biggest mysteries of the universe, such as the nature of dark matter, since the camera is capable of capturing up to 15 terabytes of images every night.

The project website says: “The LSTE camera is the largest digital camera ever made… it is about the size of a small car and weighs about 2800 kg. The LART camera will produce extremely high quality data with minimal downtime and maintenance.”

Once completed, the camera is expected to be delivered to the Chilean Observatory in May 2023 on a specially modified Boeing 747 cargo plane. It will then start operating next year after it is installed.

Source: Independent

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from Technology - Asume Tech https://asumetech.com/worlds-largest-night-sky-scanning-camera-unveiled-with-unprecedented-detail/

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