The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in America is set to begin the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) mission, which will monitor the entire sky in the Southern Hemisphere over a period of 10 years. This massive mission requires a camera of exceptional caliber, which has been provided by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
The LSST camera is as large as a small car and weighs 3 tons, making it one of the largest digital cameras in the world. Its wide-field observation capabilities will enable scientists to explore mysteries surrounding dark energy and dark matter, as well as answer other astronomical questions. The camera will help observe billions of galaxies, stars in the Milky Way, and objects in the solar system with incredible detail.
One of the key features of the LSST surveys is the repeated observations of the same airspace, allowing scientists to track changes over time. This will help in observing transient events such as supernova explosions, light curve distortions caused by passing material, and the expansion of the universe under the influence of dark energy. The LSST camera will be transported to Cerro Pachón in Chile for installation on the Simonyi survey telescope later this year.
The transportation of the LSST camera is a major challenge due to its size and fragility. The camera’s focal plane consists of 201 custom-designed CCD sensors that are extremely thin and fragile. The team has tested
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