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Can you imagine what a 3.2 gigapixel digital camera would look like? Yup – GIGApixels, a resolution capacity of 3.2 thousand megapixels or 3.2 billion pixels. Because this equipment exists and is in California, west coast of the United States. In particular, in the laboratories of the Linear Acceleration Center of Stanford University
The device will be part of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) – in direct translation: Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (understand below), whose goal will be to record and catalog, over a period of 10 years, at least 20 billion galaxies scattered throughout the universe.
In this way, scientists hope to better understand the emergence of these galaxies and the substance called “dark matter”, responsible for the composition of 95% of the universe and whose nature still remains unknown.
“This is the first time that a telescope will search for more galaxies than Earth’s inhabitants,” compared project manager Vincent Riot.
The goal was born from a collaboration between Stanford University and Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Center National de la Recherche Scientifique, the latter French.
With a height of 1.65 meters, a diameter of 1.57 meters and a weight of around three tons, the camera is so powerful that it can clearly capture the movement of dust on the surface of the moon.
By comparison, the scientists involved in the project claim that the image quality and the amount of pixels generated by the camera is equivalent to 1,500 TV screens or 266 iPhone 13.
Construction of the device began seven years ago in Tucson, Arizona, and is expected to be completed in May 2023.
The lens, which will equip the world’s most powerful camera, is an integral part of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) project.
The device, just over eight meters high, is under construction on the site where the Vera Rubin Observatory will operate, at the top of Cerro Pachón, a mountain in the Andean region of Coquimbo, at 2,715 meters above sea level, in Chile.
The Observatory is expected to be fully operational in October 2024.
All the lens numbers are superlative: the device will have 189 sensors – each measuring 16 millimeters – that will capture the equivalent of 15 Terabytes per night.
A term that has become more known to designate the storage capacity of external HS, each Terabyte corresponds to 1,024 gigabytes.
The expected heating for this activity is so high that the device will have a cooling mechanism, capable of reducing the temperature down to -100 ° C.
Super lens transported from Tucson, Arizona, where it was built, to the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California. – Photo: Farrin Abbott / SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
The positioning of the sensors was one of the most critical parts of the construction, not only because of the high cost of each, but also because of the risk that a bad positioning could lead to the final quality of the project.
“It was as if we had parked the Lamborghinis just a few millimeters apart,” compared Riot.
The reproduction of a romanesco – a vegetable related to broccoli – was the first image made by the super lens. – Photo: LSST Camera Team / SLAC / VRO / Carnegie Institution
Despite being able to record galaxies many light years from Earth, the first image captured by the super lens was much humbler: a Romanesco, a lesser-known cousin of broccoli.
The choice was not accidental.
“The camera team carefully chose the objects for the first sequence of images. One of them is the head of a Romanesque, a vegetable very close to broccoli and selected for its very detailed structure,” reads a text published on the observatory website.
According to the scientists, the structure of the plant appears in the form of a fractal, a very complex geometric shape, so a good test for the camera.
