Technology
US scientists: World’s largest digital camera ready
The camera, which the team worked on for several years in a laboratory in the US state of California, is about the size of a small car and weighs three tons. photo
© Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory/dpa
Photographing a golf ball from 24 kilometers away – the largest digital camera in the world can do that and much more. It is now finished and will be installed at an observatory in Chile.
Scientists in the USA say they have the largest digital camera built in the world. The camera, which the team worked on for several years in a laboratory in the US state of California, is about the size of a small car and weighs three tons, said the National Accelerator laboratory in Palo Alto.
The camera’s largest lens has a diameter of almost 1.60 meters. In total, the camera has 189 sensors and 3.2 gigapixels – and, according to the researchers, could therefore record a golf ball from a distance of 24 kilometers.
After completion, the product, which costs around 168 million dollars (around 155 million euros), will be installed in an observatory in the Chilean Andes. The camera will then image the southern sky and collect data for a decade.
“Soon we will produce the best film and the most informative map of the night sky ever,” said the observatory’s director, Željko Ivezić.