AGI – The world’s largest digital camera took the first images, made 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 universe. This is a result obtained by experts at 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 – SLAC’s Hannah Polack says – and will help astronomers explore the universe in search of information related to the creation and evolution of galaxies in terms of better understanding.” Darkness and its presence in reality ”.

The camera has 189 individual light sensors that carry 16 megapixel data and are grouped into nine sets. “The device is the size of an SUV – explains the expert – and was used to frame very high-definition vegetables, in the testing phase, but the camera’s real purpose is to observe the Universe, in the hope that some dimmer lights Identify and better understand the mysteries of our cosmic reality ”.

Scientists say the project was indeed challenging, but the versatile team was able to reach a very high level of definition, allowing pixels to reach dimensions of about ten microns, while the focal plane is a flat, less than a tenth. One hair.

“These properties allow the camera to get sharper images – read release – and are large enough to take pictures of a part of the sky with 40 large moons. The entire camera is designed so that imaging sensors can detect those objects. To detect objects that are one million times more unconscious than those seen with the naked eye. It can detect, for example, a candle lit thousands of kilometers away “.

LSST camera focal plane (Foto: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

The team took some photos using items found in the lab before taking the camera from Northern California to its final destination in Chile, showing a broccoli and a picture of Vera Rubin, the astronomer’s name.

“These photographs – the conclusion of Joan Hewett, director of SLAC’s affiliated laboratory for fundamental physics – are the largest single-shot images ever. To see them in their entirety, we would need a 378 ultra-high definition 4K TV screen. The success of taking these initial photographs plays a key role in the acquisition and understanding of the universe, a milestone that leads scientists to take a great step forward in exploring fundamental questions about the universe that have never before I went ” .