Giant space camera nears completion

Work in California is almost finished on the world’s largest digital camera, the key component of the new Vera C. Rubin Observatory, currently under construction atop a mountain in northern Chile


SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Menlo Park 
CALIFORNIA, U.S.

Pacific Ocean
CHILE
Cerro Pachón
CHILE


Vera C. Rubin Observatory


LEGACY SURVEY OF SPACE AND TIME (LSST) CAMERA

3.2 gigapixel sensor can spot golf ball 24km away

Utility trunk (support electronics)
Additional filters
Sensor
Lens 
Filter 
Lens 
Lens
1.65m


TELESCOPE
2024: Start of project to scan southern hemisphere sky every night for 10 years – building vast map including 20 billion galaxies and 17 billion stars in Milky Way

Elevator
Control room
Machine shop
Camera clean room Dome


Sources: Wired, CNET, Rubin Observatory 
Pictures: Rubin Observatory
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