The SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) National Accelerator Laboratory has announced the completion of the LSST Camera, which is capable of capturing 3,200-megapixel images, and will now be installed on a telescope in Chile to help unravel some of the biggest mysteries in the universe.
The Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) camera module has reportedly been more than two decades in the making, but was only granted approval for construction by the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) in 2015. Technicians at the DoE's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory managed to piece together the module's massive sensor array by early 2020, which was made up of 189 individual 16-megapixel sensors, and the first composite test photos were snapped by September.
SLAC engineers and partners have now completed assembly of all of the components, including the frame, lens and sensor. The custom-designed CCD sensors in the 3.2-gigapixel array now number 201, with each pixel measuring some 10 microns wide. The focal plane has been sealed in a vacuum chamber by a 3-ft-wide lens while the front lens is reported to measure more than 5 ft (1.5 m) in diameter. All three lenses in the camera setup were manufactured by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
The prime-focus imaging system has been designed to take a 15-second exposure every 20 seconds for observing the universe in "unprecedented detail." And the optical system, including three aspheric mirrors and large quick-change filters, will be optimized to capture light at wavelengths running from ultraviolet to near-infrared (0.3-1 µm).
"Its images are so detailed that it could resolve a golf ball from around 15 miles away, while covering a swath of the sky seven times wider than the full Moon," said Aaron Roodman, Deputy Director and Camera Project Lead at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.
The whole shebang is said to be about the size of a small car and tips the scales at a hefty 6,600 lb (3,000 kg). It will now be packed up and transported to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, where it will be mounted to the top of the Simonyi Survey Telescope later in the year, to help astronomers unpack cosmic conundrums.
One of its targets will be weak gravitational lensing, where "massive galaxies subtly bend the paths light from background galaxies take to reach us" – resulting in imaging distortions. Researchers will seek to better understand the expansion of the universe over time, the influence of the strange force thought to be driving it and gain insight on current expansion rates.
In addition to opening avenues to better understanding the composition of the universe, the 10-year project is expected to reveal secrets from our own galaxy too. The LSST camera's sensitivity is expected to allow for a much more detailed map of the Milky Way, "yielding insights into its structure and evolution as well as the nature of stars and other objects within it."
The scientists are also looking to zoom in on smaller objects within our solar system to generate a more complete picture of our closest neighbors, how our system was formed and even identify incoming threats from asteroids.
"More than ever before, expanding our understanding of fundamental physics requires looking farther out into the universe," said Kathy Turner of the DoE's Cosmic Frontier Program. "With the LSST Camera at its core, Rubin Observatory will delve deeper than ever before into the cosmos and help answer some of the hardest, most important questions in physics today."
The video below has more on the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and the LSST camera module.
Source: SLAC
