3.2-Billion-Pixel Camera Arrives at Chile's Vera C. Rubin Observatory
TapTechNews May 26 news, after 20 years of development, the 3.2-billion-pixel camera specifically built for astrophysical discoveries has finally reached its final destination - the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. This camera, known as the Legacy of Space and Time (LSST), was transported to the observatory in mid-May 2024.
The camera started its journey from the manufacturing laboratory at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California. Technicians installed a special data recorder, monitor, and GPS for it to track the condition during transportation. Then, they put the camera in a customized transport box, and the entire unit was flown from San Francisco Airport to Santiago, Chile on May 14. After arriving in Chile, it took a 5-hour drive and crossed a winding 35-kilometer dirt road to finally reach the observation site of the Rubin Observatory on May 16. According to the project construction manager, the arrival of the camera marks a significant progress in the construction of the Rubin Observatory. Transporting the camera to the top of the mountain is like completing the last crucial piece of the puzzle, he said. With all the components of the Rubin Observatory in place, we are moving towards conducting transformative scientific research using the LSST.
According to TapTechNews, this LSST camera is the last major component to be delivered to the Simonny Survey Telescope of the Rubin Observatory. The camera is about the size of a small car and is the largest camera ever made by humans. The inner focal plane is composed of 189 CCD sensors arranged in a raft shape, which together provide a 3.2-billion-pixel viewing field.
After arriving at the observatory, the camera will first go through months of testing in a clean room. After passing the test, it will be installed on the Simonny Survey Telescope and work with the newly coated 8.4-meter primary mirror and 3.4-meter secondary mirror.
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is named after the astronomer Vera C. Rubin, whose research focus is the mysterious dark matter that pervades the entire universe. Exploring the distribution of dark matter and its distribution in the universe is one of the main goals of this observatory named after her.
The LSST camera will help scientists uncover the mystery of the distribution of dark matter. First, the camera will spend ten years imaging the sky every night to carry out a large-scale survey plan, aiming to provide a complete image of the entire visible sky every 3-4 days. The area of each imaging will be equivalent to 40 full moons, and the survey process will use the 8.4-meter telescope to quickly move between imaging positions. It is estimated that after the Rubin Observatory is in full operation, it will produce a total of 500 petabytes of image and data products.
The Rubin Observatory will not only conduct survey observations with unprecedented ultra-high resolution, but also track celestial bodies with changing brightness, including supernovae, variable stars, mergers of compact celestial bodies (such as neutron stars or black holes), and other rapidly changing celestial events. In addition, it will also track asteroids and other celestial bodies passing through the solar system.
The formation and evolution of the Milky Way is another important research fiel d of the Rubin Observatory. The telescope will be able to track the stellar streams in the Milky Way and plot their trajectories. This information will provide the answers to puzzles such as how the Milky Way was formed and how the stars in the swallowed galaxy move in the Milky Way.
At present, the Rubin Observatory is still in the final stage of construction. The telescope main body has been installed in place, and other instruments and infrastructure are also being completed one after another, and it is expected to start operating in 2025.