Ready to scan the nighttime sky to calculate for evidence of dark matter , key out near - Earth asteroid , and much more , the camera for the upcoming Vera Rubin Observatory is now ended . This is the world ’s magnanimous digital camera for astronomy , with a astounding 3,200 megapixels , and it will be placed in the Rubin Observatory in Chile .
The television camera is Brobdingnagian , press around 3 measured tons , making it about the same sizing and mass as a small motorcar . With a immense front lens that is 5 groundwork across , it will be able-bodied to take incredibly detailed image of large sections of the sky . build up at the Department of Energy ’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory ( SLAC ) , it will be used for the Legacy Survey of Space and Time ( LSST ) , a 10 - twelvemonth task to image the southerly sky and pip transient objects like supernova .
“ With the completion of the unique LSST Camera at SLAC and its impending desegregation with the remainder of Rubin Observatory systems in Chile , we will soon start produce the greatest movie of all time and the most instructive map of the night sky ever forgather , ” said Director of Rubin Observatory Construction , Željko Ivezić of the University of Washington , in thestatement .
The Brobdingnagian scale of the camera makes it incredibly powerful , able to capture a very across-the-board field of study of eyeshot ( meaning it can take in a large portion of the sky with each observation ) and to settle very fine particular .
“ Its figure are so detailed that it could resolve a golf game ball from around 25 kilometers ( 15 miles ) away while covering a belt of the sky seven times all-inclusive than the full Moon . These image , with billion of sensation and galax , will serve unlock the secrets of the Universe , ” said SLAC prof and Rubin Observatory Deputy Director and Camera Program Lead Aaron Roodman .
The camera has been tested at SLAC and is now ready to be send to Chile , where it will be installed onto the Simonyi Survey Telescope later this class . This telescope , as part of the Rubin Observatory , is located at the top of the Cerro Pachón mountain — a location thatbrings some challenges to installment .
Rubin is ready to begin its sketch in 2025 when it will scan the sky to find out about the movements of distant Galax urceolata to help uncover data about colored issue and other key topics in astronomy .
“ More than ever before , expanding our sympathy of fundamental physics call for looking farther out into the universe , ” said Kathy Turner , program manager for the DOE ’s Cosmic Frontier Program . “ With the LSST Camera at its core , Rubin Observatory will turn over deeper than ever before into the cosmos and serve answer some of the hardest , most important interrogative in physics today . ”
