A smartphone with a 16-megapixel camera may seem cutting edge, but it won't impress astronomers now that the US Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has given the go-ahead to start construction of the world's largest digital camera. With a resolution of 3.2-gigapixels (enough to need 1,500 high-definition television screens to display one image), the new camera is at the heart of the 8.4-meter (27.5-ft) Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) now under construction atop Cerro Pachón in Chile.

Not surprisingly, the new camera is no lightweight. The three-mirrored device is the size of a small car, tipping the scales at over 3 tons (2.7 tonnes). It's the result of a wide partnership of institutions that include Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and SLAC, contains 189 sensors, has a resolution equivalent to 800,000 eight-megapixel cameras, and contains a filter-changing mechanism and shutter for viewing different wavelengths from the near-ultraviolet to the near-infrared.

Having passed the last major approval decision, Critical Decision 3, the camera will be built and tested over the next five years in a new 185-sq m (2,000-sq ft), two-story-tall clean room at SLAC in Menlo Park, California before installation in the LSST.

It's hoped that this will assist astronomers to gain a better understanding of how galaxies are formed, aid in tracking potentially dangerous asteroids, and also provide a better understanding of dark matter and dark energy, which is believed to make up 95 percent of the Universe.

"We’ve been working hard for years to get to this point,” said Nadine Kurita, camera project manager at SLAC. "Everyone is very excited to start building the camera and take a big step toward conducting a deep survey of the Southern night sky."

http://www.dailytechfeeds.com/2015/09/worlds-most-powerful-digital-camera.html

Damn!!

I know its for space observation.
Cc: lalasticlala, johnydon22, teempakguy, menesheh, robinhez

HA!

HABA!

THE ONE WEY DEM GET, DEM NO USE AM FINISH. THEY WAN GET ANOTHER 3200 MEGAPIXEL JOIN AM.

THESE PEOPLE SEF, WHEN I DEY HERE DEY MANAGE 2.0 MP SELFIE CAMERA.

johnydon22:
Of course it must be for deep space exploration, who can take a selfie with that..

Do you know the hubble telescope cannot take a pic of earth because it is too close to earth. . so this new camera is obviously for deep space astronomy

any human that attempts to take a selfie with that kind of camera will run mad whenever he sees the resulting image.

johnydon22:
Of course it must be for deep space exploration, who can take a selfie with that..

Do you know the hubble telescope cannot take a pic of earth because it is too close to earth. . so this new camera is obviously for deep space astronomy

You mean Like seriously? Hubble too close to earth that it can only take blur picture of the earth

Amazing

johnydon22:
Wicked!!!

Laughing to myself now imagining how it will be for the person when he/she sees the picture will be like "WTF, This can't be me" **Faints**

You can imagine the deeps details the camera will show...

Imagine having one television devoted to displaying just one tiny section of your nose, or beard.

Chai, I can't even begin to imagine.

a. With a resolution of 3.2-gigapixels (enough to need 1,500 high-definition television screens to display one image)

Amazingly stupid camera resolution.


Johnydon22! Does it means that the optic in the camera, if used to launch a satellite with the same specs like hubble telescope, this new way of discovering earth-like planet will be like 3310 to it.