AGI – The largest digital camera in the world took the first images, made up of 3.2 billion pixels (or 3,200 megapixels), taking a Romanesco broccoli, but it will soon be used to observe the Universe in search of answers about the cosmos. This is the result achieved by experts from the Stanford Linear Acceleration Center (SLAC), at Stanford University, who published a statement describing the success of the operation.
“The camera will be transferred to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory – says Hannah Pollek of SLAC – and will help astronomers to scrutinize the Universe in search of information relating to the formation and evolution of galaxies, in the hope of better understanding matter dark and its presence in reality “.
The camera has 189 individual light sensors that carry 16 megapixels of data and are grouped into nine sets. “The device is the size of an SUV – explains the expert – and was used, in the test phase, to frame very high definition vegetables, but the real purpose of the camera is to observe the Universe, in the hope of identify some of the dimmer lights and better understand the secrets of our cosmic reality ”.
The scientist adds that the project was really challenging, but the versatile team was able to reach a very high level of definition, so that the pixels reach dimensions of about ten microns, while the focal plane is extremely flat, less than a tenth. of a hair.
“These properties allow the camera to acquire sharp images – the release reads – and large enough to take photos of a portion of the sky with 40 full moons. The entire camera is designed so that the imaging sensors can detect objects that are over ten million times fainter than objects visible to the naked eye. It could detect, for example, a lit candle thousands of kilometers away “.
LASST Camera Focal Plane (Foto: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
The team took some photos using objects found in the lab before taking the camera from Northern California to its final destination in Chile, depicting a broccoli and a photo of Vera Rubin, the astronomer after whom the observatory is named.
“These photos – concludes JoAnne Hewett, director of SLAC’s associated laboratory for fundamental physics – are the largest single-shot images ever taken. To view them in their entirety, we would need 378 ultra-high definition 4K TV screens. The success of taking these initial photos plays a significant role in the acquisition and understanding of the Universe, it is a milestone that leads scientists to take a great step forward in exploring fundamental questions about the cosmos in ways never previously considered ” .
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