Wednesday, January 13, 2010

570-Megapixel Digital Camera Is the Mother and the Father of All Cameras [Digital Cameras]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/8j50t3hClX4/570+megapixel-digital-camera-is-the-mother-and-the-father-of-all-cameras

Dark energy Peeping Toms rejoice, because Fermilab has created the gadget to catch it: A $35 million, car-sized digital camera, with 74 CCD sensors in it. It will take 570-megapixel photos of the Universe.

The resulting sensor is one meter in diameter, covering a 2.2-degree field of view. The images are so big that, even with an ultra-fast data recording system, each photo will take 17 seconds to acquire.

The camera won't photograph the dark energy itself, however. It will just provide with ultra-detailed shots of the cosmos—tracking 300 million galaxies over the course of five years—which may bring evidence about the existence of this veiled intergalactic power. Which is too bad, because I bet she looks sexy in her undies. [Dark Energy Survey via Wired]