May 21st, 2006
3 Billion Pixel Camera
Posted by
Ben in
General
NewScientist is reporting on plans for a $300 million telescope in Chile that will use a digital camera with 3 billion pixels to image the entire sky across three nights, producing an expected 30 terabytes of data per night.
The 8.4-metre Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) will be located on Cerro Pachón, a 2700-metre-high peak in northern Chile, which is already home to the 8-metre Gemini South telescope and will allow astronomers to detect objects that quickly change their position, such as near-Earth asteroids, or their brightness, such as supernovae.
