Scientists unveil SUV-sized camera that could change our perception of space

The innovative telescope is expected to be operational in 2025. It will be fitted with a giant camera built to capture spectacular views of space.

The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in the United States has completed an LSST camera that is 5.5 feet tall and weighs more than 6,200 pounds (1.65 meters, 2,800 kilograms). High mountains of Chile. The lab posted new images online showing a camera more than 12 feet (3.7 meters) long with an imposing lens inside a clean room.

“LSST about the size of a small SUV” [Legacy Survey of Space and Time] “This camera is the largest camera ever created for astronomy,” the lab said.

Engineers will install a large camera on the observatory’s 8.4-meter (27.5-foot) wide Simony Survey Telescope, which is itself a revolutionary piece of equipment. fastest A large telescope on Earth that can rotate 180 degrees in just 20 seconds.

The goal is to create an unprecedented catalog of the universe. “This is the first time that a telescope has cataloged more galaxies than there are people on Earth,” the lab said. A huge digital camera takes him a 15 second exposure every 20 seconds. The camera is so large that each image covers a zone of the sky more than 40 times the area of ​​the full moon.

Look at the LSST camera. The scientist is in the foreground, giving a sense of perspective.

The SLAC team building the LSST camera poses in front of their equipment in a clean room in Menlo Park, California.
Credit: Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell / SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Diagram showing the size of the LSST camera.
Credit: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Equipped with an enormous camera, this gigantic telescope will give astronomers around the world an unprecedented ability to rapidly investigate the solar system, the Milky Way, and objects far beyond.

“We think we’re building a ‘sky crawler and Google search,'” Mario Juric, a professor at the University of Washington who works with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, told Mashable in 2023. . Once connected to a large telescope (which can take months to propose, approve, and implement), scientists can visit his website, run queries, and access data in seconds. Get access to the best dataset possible. ”

How telescopes change our understanding of the universe

– Over the past few centuries, astronomers and space agencies such as NASA have discovered about 1.2 million asteroids in our solar system. After three to six months of observation, Rubin would double this number. According to Juric, 5 million asteroids will be identified in 10 years.

– The number of icy worlds (“exo-solar objects” or dwarf planets) beyond the distant planet Neptune will increase by about 10 times.

– There are currently two known interstellar comets. Ruben would identify 10 to 50 times more.

– “And if ‘Planet did. Planet X is a speculative world within our solar system that may exist far beyond the orbit of Pluto.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory isn’t the only giant futuristic telescope that will soon begin studying the night sky. The Giant Magellan Telescope, which will study the evolution of the universe and the properties of planets outside our solar system (exoplanets), will become operational in the late 2020s. The Very Large Telescope, with its 128-foot-wide mirror, is slated to become the largest optical telescope on Earth later this decade.