The Biggest Digital Camera Ever Developed for Astronomy Is Completed at SLAC.
The Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) Camera has been completed, marking the culmination of twenty years of work for scientists, engineers, and partners at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
The 3,200-megapixel camera, at the center of the DOE- and National Science Foundation-funded Vera C. Rubin Observatory, will enable astronomers to view our cosmos with never-before-seen clarity. It will provide a vast amount of data on the southern night sky over 10 years, which scientists will sift through to get fresh perspectives on the cosmos. The search for dark matter, the enigmatic material that makes up around 85% of the stuff in the cosmos, and an understanding of dark energy, which is responsible for the universe's accelerated expansion, would both benefit from those data. Additionally, scientists want to utilize the Rubin data to learn more about how our solar system, the Milky Way galaxy, and the night sky. “With the completion of the unique LSST Camera at SLAC and its imminent integration with the rest of Rubin Observatory systems in Chile, we will soon start producing the greatest movie of all time and the most informative map of the night sky ever assembled,” said Director of Rubin Observatory Construction and University of Washington professor Željko Ivezić.
With a front lens that is more than five feet across—the biggest lens ever created for this use—and a weight of over three thousand kilograms (3 metric tons), the camera is about the size of a compact vehicle. It was necessary to create a custom three-foot-wide lens to preserve form and optical clarity and to seal the vacuum chamber that holds the camera's massive focal plane. The 201 distinct custom-designed CCD sensors that make up the focus plane are so flat that any variation in it is limited to a tenth of the breadth of a human hair. The actual pixels have a width of only 10 microns.
As the heart of the DOE- and National Science Foundation-funded Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the
camera will generate an enormous trove of data on the southern night sky that researchers will mine
for new insights about dark energy and dark matter, as well as the changing night sky, the Milky Way
galaxy, and our solar system. (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
( Source: Google Images)
However, according to SLAC professor, Rubin Observatory Deputy Director, and Camera Program Lead Aaron Roodman, the camera's most significant feature is its resolution, which is so great that it would require hundreds of ultra-high-definition TVs to view just one of its photos at full size. "Its images cover a swath of the sky seven times wider than the full moon, and with such detail, it could resolve a golf ball from about fifteen miles away." The mysteries of the cosmos will be revealed by these pictures, which contain billions of stars and galaxies.
"More than ever before, expanding our understanding of fundamental physics requires looking farther out into the universe.” ~ Kathy Turner, Program Manager for the DOE’s Cosmic Frontier Program
Looking for Dark Energy and Matter ~
Various Mysteries Awaits To Be Get Unlocked!
(Source: Google Images)
After undergoing extensive testing at SLAC, the LSST Camera will be packaged, loaded, and driven up the 8,900-foot-high Cerro Pachón in the Andes to be installed atop the Simonyi Survey Telescope later this year. A typical day in the life of Margaux Lopez, an engineer working on a team to build a mountaintop telescope, involves getting ready for the arrival of the biggest digital camera ever made for astrophysics and cosmology at the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile.
Margaux Lopez in front of a structure housing telescopes ~ The primary function of the camera, if operational, is to map the locations and brightness values of a large number of objects in the night sky. Researchers can deduce a great deal of information from that catalog. The LSST Camera will likely be most notable for its search for evidence of weak gravitational lensing, a phenomenon in which huge galaxies gently distort the pathways that background galaxy light takes to reach us. Cosmologists will be able to better grasp how dark energy is propelling the universe's expansion by using the information that weak lensing provides about the distribution of mass in the cosmos and how it has evolved.
The project prompted scientists and engineers to create a variety of new technologies, such as novel CCD sensor types and some of the biggest lenses ever manufactured, and ensure that all of those parts functioned well together. The observatory is the first constructed for investigating weak lensing on this scale, stated Martin Nordby, the LSST camera project manager and a senior staff engineer at SLAC. To better understand dark matter and dark energy, scientists also wish to look at trends in the distribution of galaxies and how they have evolved. They also hope to locate supernovae and find dark matter clusters.
Researchers will be able to examine something closer to home—our own Milky Way galaxy—with the use of the same photos that provide data about faraway galaxies. The LSST Camera's sensitivity is expected to enable astronomers to create a significantly more precise image of our galaxy, providing insights into its structure and development as well as the makeup of stars and other objects inside it, even though many of its stars are tiny and dim. Building the camera has also been a rewarding challenge for the SLAC team that built it and led the project, said Travis Lange, the camera’s deputy project manager and camera integration manager. “I’m very proud of what we’ve built,” he said. “This has been such a unique project that has exposed me to incredible experiences – who could have imagined that the Secretary of State and Speaker of the House would hold a press conference in front of the camera clean room? That will be a tough act to follow! "
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