(The world's largest digital camera debuts.)
What does the world's largest digital camera look like? What can I take? Scientists have officially unveiled its veil. This camera will capture the most extensive cosmic image ever.
st, the US Department of Energy SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory announced the world's largest digital camera. This day, digital cameras are 1.65 meters high and have a resolution of 3.2 billion pixels. They are powerful enough to find a golf ball 15 miles (about 24 kilometers) away.
(about 1.65 meters high and 3 meters wide, about the same size as a car and weighs about 2,800 kg.)
If this is not intuitive enough to describe it, then let's change the way. This digital camera is equivalent to 2,666 Apple phones. Can you feel its shock?
Although this camera has not been completed yet, all its mechanical parts are now assembled.
(The camera will be installed at the Vera Rubin Observatory on the top of Cerro Pachón, Chile by the end of 2024.)
SLAC invites some photographer visitors to the clean room of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, where the world's largest digital camera is placed. It is about 5.5 feet high (about 1.65 meters) and is 9.8 feet wide (about 3 meters) and is about the same size as a car and weighs about 6,200 pounds (about 2,800 kg).
Visitors can see the impressive focal plane through the camera's lens. The focal plane of this camera is similar to the imaging sensor of a digital camera or a smartphone camera. It captures light emitted or reflected by an object and converts it into an electrical signal for generating digital images.
(The imaging sensor in the camera will be able to find objects that are 100 million times dim than objects visible to the naked eye.)
This digital camera works similarly to other digital cameras, except that it is much larger in size. It has 189 sensors that can convert the light signals of celestial bodies such as stars into electrical signals, and then convert them into digital images. The camera has a resolution of up to 3.2 billion pixels, enough to see a speck of dust on the moon. Its maximum lens diameter is 1.57 meters, the largest lens of its kind ever.
project manager Vincent said that the camera's sensor is expensive and any slight misalignment can cause damage, so assembling the sensor is like "parking Lamborghini apart".
(The camera will collect dozens of terabytes of data every night to help scientists reveal the essence of dark matter , understand the formation and evolution of galaxies, and promote human understanding of the universe.) After
is completed, the imaging sensors in the camera will be able to discover objects 100 million times darker than objects visible to the naked eye - this sensitivity can allow humans to see candles thousands of miles away.
In 2020, before the camera is equipped with lenses and shutters, SLAC researchers tested sensors through pinholes, including cauliflower. Vincent said the camera will undergo rigorous testing for five months as other components are installed in place to ensure potential faults are eliminated before installation.
This year, the digital camera will also have a last upgrade: an updated cooling system will be installed, and the camera will be completed and ready for the final test.
In May 2023, this digital camera will take an Boeing 747 plane to Chile Santiago . By the end of 2024, the camera will be installed at the Vera Rubin Observatory on the top of Cerro Pachón in Chile. There, this camera will provide people with an unprecedented cosmic vision. In the next 10 years, it will participate in the Space-Time Heritage Survey (LSST), creating an astronomical catalogue containing images of about 20 billion galaxies. The camera will collect dozens of terabytes of data every night to help scientists reveal the nature of dark matter, understand the formation and evolution of galaxies, and promote human understanding of the universe.
(Comprehensive China Science Daily Correspondent Wang Hua)
