Scientists create largest digital camera that has 3200 megapixels and weighs 3 tons։ What will it do?

The National Accelerator Laboratory SLAC has completed the production of the world's largest digital camera. This instrument, weighing 3 tons with a lens diameter of 1.5 meters and dimensions comparable to a small car, is being prepared for shipment to Chile for installation on the 8th Simonyi Telescope at the Vera Rubin Observatory. The transportation process will be so meticulous that a sensor-laden scale model of the camera has already been driven along the route to ensure its viability.

In Chile, the camera will be flown in on a Boeing aircraft. The route testing also included verification of this stage. The camera's CCD sensor array consists of 189 individual components, separated by a distance of 0.5 mm from each other. All of them are aligned within a plane with a deviation of no more than 15 micrometers. Route testing has shown that the camera can withstand transportation, but there is still some apprehension, considering that it took nearly ten years to develop.

The installation of the LSST camera on the telescope is expected to be completed by the end of this year. It will be integrated into the telescope's positioning system with an 8.23-meter mirror, as well as connected to the control and cooling system. The array of sensors with a resolution of 3.2 gigapixels will be cooled to -100 °C. This will not only allow the matrix to operate more stably but also to collect light in the near-infrared range. Additionally, the camera will collect light in the optical and near-ultraviolet ranges.

The LSST camera, with its massive sensor and only 8 mirrors, will not be much more powerful than the James Webb Space Telescope. Its main advantage lies in its ability to conduct multiple and rapid surveys of vast portions of the sky. Each of its frames will cover an area of ​​over 40 full moons. This means that no rapid events will be missed within the camera's designated portion of the sky. It will be the southern hemisphere sky, and over the course of 10 years, the LSST camera will essentially know everything about it in real-time.

Every night, the camera will collect up to 15 terabytes of data. It will be able to track billions of galaxies and approximately 17 billion stars in our galaxy. Millions of objects in the Solar System will also be available for observation. This is also extremely important from the perspective of planetary defense. The camera will help identify dangerous asteroids and comets.

After the camera is fully integrated into the telescope systems, it will be tested for the next 18 weeks, and the first images will be published in the spring of 2025. Scientists have not yet chosen the first object for observation, but they say it could be one of the bright galaxies.

Regular and extensive sky surveys by the LSST camera will further narrow down the parameters that determine the behavior of dark matter and dark energy. In this sense, the instrument can be called a hunter of dark matter and energy. The former cements cosmic objects, while the latter causes them to accelerate, leading to the expansion of the Universe. The LSST camera will be able to assess the effects of both phenomena on stars and galaxies with unprecedented accuracy, and this will be its main value.