World's most powerful camera to take 3,200 megapixel images of night sky

The future camera of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile has been equipped with 189 individual sensors that will capture a total of 3.2 gigapixels. — Jacqueline Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory/AFP

For the first time ever, test photographs with a resolution of 3.2 gigapixels have been taken using a giant focal plane equipped with 189 sensors at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California, United States. The giant new camera will soon be installed in the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which is under construction in Chile, where it will be used to take pictures of the night sky with a level of detail that has never before been obtained.

Expected to be fully operational in 2022, the new observatory will be used to compile a vast map of the night sky that will provide researchers with a treasure trove of data that may elucidate some of the secrets of the universe.