Researchers get money to build world’s most powerful camera

The US Department of Defense has released a budget for building a camera with no less than 3.2 gigapixels. The approval allows construction of the world’s most powerful camera to begin. The first images should be shot in 2022.

It concerns the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which is being built by the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and will be installed in Chile. The accompanying 3.2 gigapixel camera has now gone through ‘Critical Decision 2’: that means that the American authorities have approved the proposed budget for the design. According to the initiators, development can now be continued and the completion date will be met in 2022.

To achieve a resolution of 3.2 gigapixels, 189 ccds are needed, which form the heart of the camera. In order to process the images quickly, each CCD sensor is divided into 16 data sectors: each of those sectors has its own readout channel. The scientists expect to produce approximately 6 million gigabytes, or 6 petabytes, of data per year.

Many years are taken to develop the powerful camera. In 2011, for example, the first milestone was reached with the completion of CD 1, which means that the development of the camera was given the green light. We are now waiting for the status CD 3, to indicate that construction has started: this status is expected next summer. Ultimately, the telescope with 3.2 gigapixel camera will not be ready until 2022.

With the camera, scientists want to create images of the universe in greater detail than was previously possible. It should provide information on, among other things, the formation of galaxies, the observation of exploding stars and the tracking of asteroids. The scientists also want to gain more insight into dark matter and dark energy.