Social Good Engineering Magazine: GineersNow Social Innovation GineersNow Engineering Magazine Issue No. 001 | Page 78

CAMERAS
Photo Source: Petapixel
THE LARGEST CAMERA
IN THE WORLD
USES 3.2 GIGAPIXELS
A
stronomical renaissance
may only be just a click away
thanks to the Large Synop-
tic Survey Telescope. The
Department of Energy has
already given its permission
for the creation of what will
become the world’s largest camera at 3.2
gigapixels. Your smartphone is puny by
comparison, size-wise and pixel-wise. The
Large Synoptic Survey Telescopic or LSST
will be used for hunting dark matter and
energy across the Southern sky from its
location on the top of Cerro Pachon in
Chile. This camera will end up producing a
public archive of 60 petabytes. That is more
movies than you can watch in a lifetime!

The LSST has been in the plan-
ning phase for a long time. The National
Optical Astronomy and the Association
of Universities for Research in Astrono-
my have been trying to get a wide field
telescope for surveying since the 90s. A
number of private financiers and 36 insti-
tutions have provided their support for the
instrument. Bill Gates is one of them. The
LSST is yet to be built.

However, the approval by the
Department of Energy marks the comple-
tion of Critical Decision 3 phase. This is
the last major decision for approval before
the camera can be built. Now, the process
of construction can finally begin! However,
the operations are not likely to start before
the year 2022.
Photo Source: Daily Mail
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