Over the course of time, we have seen an immense development in camera technology. Today, we have advanced camera sensors that are compact enough to fit inside a camera module of a smartphone to produce 108-megapixel images. However, did you know that researchers are at Stanford are making the world’s largest camera? Not only that, but they also captured the world’s first 3200-megapixel images using that camera’s sensor!
So, as an initial test for the special sensor of the LSST camera, the researchers took a few pictures with it. Each of these pictures is “so large that it would take 378 4K ultra-high-definition TV screens to display one of them in full size, and their resolution is so high that you could see a golf ball from about 15 miles away.”, reads the official blog post by the SLAC team.
“The 21 square rafts (center), each containing nine sensors, will produce the images for Rubin Observatory’s science program. An additional four specialty rafts (left) with only three sensors each will be used for camera focusing and synchronizing the telescope with Earth’s rotation.”, reads the post.
Now, to capture the first set of images, the researchers took the “focal plane”, placed in inside a cryostat, and cooled down the sensors to a negative 150-degree Fahrenheit, which is their required operating temperature.
And if you are curious enough, you can also check out all the technical details and features of these images from here.
