This 3.2 Gigapixel Camera Will Record a Timelapse of the Universe

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will use the world's largest digital camera to capture the far reaches of the universe, and in the process, hope to tackle some of the most fundamental questions in science today.
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The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is the first national observatory to have been named for a woman and it currently houses the world’s largest optical lens ever built.
Measuring 1.55 meters in diameter, this piece of glass is one of three lenses that will be the eyes for a new astronomical camera. The optical lens weighs more than 3 tons and has an enormous field of view, where light from billions of galaxies will come into focus. By recording images of the entire sky every few days, this camera will produce a time-lapse movie of the universe.
In this Focal Point, we hear from Cosmologist Daniel Gruen, PhD, from the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, and Stuart Marshall, a camera operator physicist, to learn more about what this massive digital camera has to offer. Watch to find out!
#camera #observatory #universe #space #galaxy #science #seeker #focalpoint
Additional credit:
Miguel Aragon-Calvo, UNAM, Mark SubbaRao, Adler Planetarium, Alex Szalay, JHU
Read More:
Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time
lsst.slac.stanford.edu/#
“During the first 10 years of operations, Rubin Observatory will conduct the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) of the entire southern sky and provide the widest, fastest and deepest views of the night sky ever observed.”
Engineering the world’s largest digital camera
www.symmetrymagazine.org/arti...
“The camera is a combination of many extremes. Its largest lens is one of the biggest ever created for astronomy and astrophysics. The ceramic grid that will hold its imaging sensors is so flat that no feature larger than a human red blood cell sticks up from its surface. The electronics that control the sensors are customized to fit in a very tight space and use as little power as possible.”
First national US observatory to be named after a woman!
www.lsst.org/news/vro-press-r...
“It was announced today that the upcoming Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), which will conduct a vast astronomical survey for unprecedented discovery of the deep and dynamic Universe, will now be named the NSF (National Science Foundation) Vera C. Rubin Observatory (Rubin Observatory).”
Four New Giant Telescopes Are About to Rock Astronomy
www.discovermagazine.com/the-...
“Now, astronomers stand on the threshold of a new telescope revolution. During the next several years, researchers expect three instruments that are more than twice the size of their closest competitors to start scanning the skies. And a fourth telescope, one “only” 8 meters in diameter, will use advanced technology to image the entire night sky every three days. This quartet of new instruments promises to deliver stunning science on the hot-button issues.”
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[@trailblazer2001]

All this just to make another wallpaper for my PC.

[@Gfish17]

That's the whole point. Lol.

[@craigcorson3036]

Aren't people nice?

[@clifbar8628]

🤣😅😅

[@pressaltf4forfreevbucks179]

Well, thats fine by me tbh

[@TotalDrganMania]

We wanted to make something special for you :)

[@fortuner123]

Stunning. These guys are truly brilliant.

[@vishwassamriya2946]

Absolutely, no doubts..!! They think this is also.. amazing..!!

[@anirudhroy6124]

That's why they're known as scientists 😁😁😁

[@anirudhroy6124]

We are around 7 billion in population and among us only few millions are taking us to the future .. that's not fair🙄🙄🙄

[@reecemilan7763]

They are madlads

[@stijn2472]

Can't wait for the pictures it will take.

[@skyeplays1772]

but they will look normal because most if not all phones don't have 3.2billion pixels

[@bgtubber]

@@skyeplays1772 I had a stroke reading this.

[@EzequielBaltazar]

Guess they could pay for the project just selling huge posters os those pictures with a good campaign.

[@EzequielBaltazar]

@@skyeplays1772 but then you keep zooming... 😜

[@paniccat502]

For the final timelaps it will take 10 years

[@EzequielBaltazar]

Damn! My 30mp dslr makes 50Mb raw images... Just made the math here using this reference and each file of this camera takes 5.3Gb! It's 10.6Gb per minute! 600+Gb per hour! If we are lucky to have an average of 4 hours per night without clouds, in 10 years it will consume 9 million and 334 thousand Gb..... 🤯 9.3 Petabytes. And we will have translated all the visible light of the universe from our perspective to a collection of 7.47x10e16 zeros and ones...

[@anandsuralkar2947]

Is RAW image losslessely compressed though???

[@axel3895]

@@anandsuralkar2947 actually it will be more than that

[@darshanD_o7]

Damn !

[@raditiyavalendeto4112]

@@anandsuralkar2947 no compression.

[@lasarith2]

Studious Monk it’s also the old CCD - then newer cmos in all modern camera because CCD is still far superior then cmos .

[@blancocd]

applied for an internship on computer vision for this observatory's images, hopefully I'll get it :)

[@reynanhenry612]

Good luck

[@xenxk7]

Hopefully you get it! Good luck!!

[@musiclove94r]

Goood luck!

[@surfside75]

10 year internship 🤷

[@aqeelraja4750]

Good luck

[@wnderer4365]

imagine the size of the total files... 3.2 billion pixels image every 30 sec for every night 10 years...

[@Nulibrium]

around tree fiddy

[@niklasschmidt3610]

Could be three or four... maybe five

[@willblack7353]

50 L.

[@benbooth2783]

100's of petabytes in fact 7:28.

[@EzequielBaltazar]

It would be interesting to know how many 1 Tb ssds they have avaliable.

[@shubh_007]

Guys, seems like we're about to get some brand new wallpapers 📷

[@christiansartorio3645]

I can't wait also hope we can reach the year of 2030s

[@genericasianperson6405]

@@christiansartorio3645 with how 2020 is going there won't be a 2030

[@craigcorson3036]

Mine is Stephan's Quintet right now. What's yours?

[@yeetionary]

2020 described: Your riding on a bike,excited for a new decade,but then the ground combusts into fire,then the sky is on fire,and everything’s on fire because your in hell.

[@bunnygirl8482]

Hubble pictures are Good wallpapers.

[@anonymousstout4759]

Ah, yes finally camera to see dem Alien cheeks

[@ivan-Croatian]

Dem fine alien ass cheeks 🙄

[@bevelededge6941]

@@ivan-Croatian u finna see bactera sized cheeks xD

[@tanjirokamodo5072]

@@bevelededge6941 At least it will be alien cheeks

[@mitchellbrown1425]

than you would have epic science balls

[@elviscesar8021]

haha alien is on mars..

[@ShubhamKumar-dl5gv]

when we see such amazing inventions we should realize how far humanity has come from hunter and gathers to the explorer of the universe.

[@SuperMuha2]

but also how few we actually know and we just started to understand - we have got such a long journey to go.

[@bulletproofblouse]

Still hunting and gathering data. :D

[@hariangr]

yet people still believe earth is flat

[@ShubhamKumar-dl5gv]

@@SuperMuha2 yes brother when i also think about it i get excited plus sad , sad beacause we are not gonna be arround to witness all those things ..... Still happy 😊 for humanity

[@ShubhamKumar-dl5gv]

@@bulletproofblouse yes 😂😂😂 but this hunting and gathering is much harder than what our ancestor use to do ....

[@raditiyavalendeto4112]

Samsung: write that down, write that down!

[@sreejithsreekumar1327]

charles* lel

[@dondominic7404]

LOL!

[@KK001]

Theyre working on a 600mp sensor for smartphones whitch is apparently the resolution of the human eye. It should me out in 3-4 years.

[@aarshinpanchal]

Ohhhhhhh!! Epic

[@yeetionary]

no add 3 cameras wait that’s apple

[@mashiroinoue]

*"Every 30 seconds, half a minute passes."*

[@arzentvm]

words of wisdom

[@watema3381]

*yes, the floor is made of floor*

[@yeetionary]

together we can stop this

[@Vysair]

the sky is as high as the sky

[@skyeplays1772]

:O

[@mk1st]

Always nice to be reminded that there are smart people out there doing great work.

[@jacobandrews2663]

sadly, those same brilliant people refuse to lead us and become our politicians..

[@amentrison2794]

@@jacobandrews2663 yup. What's that quote? Something about how those who would be best fit to lead us are inherently the kind of people who wouldn't want to get that kind of job

[@surrogatemarker]

Probably the most impressive video graphics I’ve ever bet seen to explain this incredible camera and it’s capabilities

[@patrik5123]

I dig that Vera Rubin is getting this level of acknowledgement.

[@chandrakanthor1706]

Vivo&oppo are trying to put this cam in their next mobile.

[@arnavrawat9864]

XD LMAO

[@awholenewchannel5649]

I can smell it coming no joke

[@anandsuralkar2947]

It wouldn't be joke in next 3-4years really that is gonna be a real thing

[@sampohlmann1503]

@@anandsuralkar2947 it would be physically impossible, unless their next phone will be as big as the dome they used to envelope the telescope.

[@dkt6408]

MP are not that important over 30MP Phone manufacturers just want numbers to put on advertising. The best professional DSLR'S are 20-30 MP

[@AdamSalehx]

The sponsor of MelodySheep?

[@azom5577]

no

[@xxsever_shadowxx6279]

no

[@13_cmi]

@@azom5577 heheh funny number

[@rottenpoet6675]

MelodySheep best :D

[@davidmurphy563]

I wish they'd named "dark matter" something like "non-barionic matter", the current name makes people think its related to dark energy and woo-peddlers have run rampant with it.

[@cmbaz1140]

NBM

[@mranderson2048]

woo-peddlers will always be there... we still got flat Earthers, ffs

[@patrik5123]

woo-peddlers and science-disbelievers will always exist. The name, I think, is irrelevant.

[@skyeplays1772]

non-photonic matter

[@JC-ld7kc]

dank matter

[@hipopickle2216]

Absolutely amazing ❤️ we need to see the pictures

[@EFJoKeR]

To be on the front lines, and discovering the universe like that, is truely awe-inspirering. I feel a slight tingle of envy, towards the scientists that do this for a living, but at the same time, i don't because i also know the hard work they all put into it... Thanks for a wonderful video, that most certainly brightened my day, quite abit... Love watching these videos...

[@zachnunes123456789]

Finally something positive and exciting for the years to come.

[@marcd7332]

There are many positive things coming, if you only focus on the negative you miss them.

[@RahulKumar-it7iu]

My phone wouldn't store even a single picture of that camera.

[@Utroll]

that would be around 5.3Gb ... yes your phone handles it. The question would be more about the memory to open that file and the processing power .. And.. what for ? (please no more wallpaper joke ahah)

[@wk8219]

I've been excited abou this one for the better part of a decade. Can't wait for first light.

[@zyghom]

totally agree: 1st thing is to make these pictures but 2nd is to correctly analyse them and learn from them enormous project - superb!

[@HridayRK]

Truly insightful ! Seeker, you are the best.😊

[@louistech112]

This is amazing I can’t wait to see what we can learn from this

[@Killbayne]

Im extremely stoked for this! I love seeing humanity progress

[@dogarualexandru-stefan]

Imagine, if all humanity was united and there ware no money, imagine the technical and scientific advances we would have without the hindrance of money.

[@_rileyweaver_637]

If only that kind of economy would work

[@jeremymaloy]

Wow - can’t wait to see the pictures!

[@no_more_free_nicks]

It will record the most beautiful traces of the starlink project.

[@astrofox2409]

Unfortunately, yeah, Starlink isn't great for astronomy.

[@jonathanmay7508]

@@astrofox2409 astronomy needs to accelerate its progress just like the tech industry does. We need to be building a composite of satellites to form a mega telescope in space that would make the James web look like a toy

[@GK-qc5ry]

@@jonathanmay7508 yeah maybe more global networks of telescopes like they did for the black hole picture, turning earth into one massive telescope.

[@ayushsharma8804]

@@GK-qc5ry we can't use that method for optical telescopes because the distance uncertainty needs to be less than the wave length of the light for it to work.

[@matthias4]

Satellite traces can easily be removed by software, even I know several hobby astronomers who know how to. I think the scientists might be able to do this as well. :) But many simulations of a sky with Starlink satellites are outdated anyway because of the lower orbit (500-600km) and the ways SpaceX tries to block more light from reflecting to earth. (Dark coating and sun visors)

[@zakariahassan1585]

I wonder what the images would look like if this equipment was placed onto the ISS (International Space Station) ?

[@Im-mv6bf]

Needs to go way higher than that. Moving far too fast on the iss for it do be any good

[@kannasai3998]

Not feasible.. for that purpose James Webb deep space telescope is getting ready..!

[@Gronkel_]

A 30 ton optical lens?

[@daniebello]

Kanna Sai James Webb shoots in infrared only I think

[@emildobre4442]

Tell Elon

[@thehandleiwantedwasntavailable]

This made me warm and fuzzy.

[@amoghavarshamurthy]

Beautiful graphics used in this video.

[@interludic]

Great team work seems to the really impressive thing to me. But the results will be truly amazing for the next generation to unravel

[@publicmail2]

DARPA used this in a satellite to look at earth real time at a relatively large area, several sq miles, using cheap smart phone CCDs in a mosaic.

[@KevinMsyah]

Can we access it?

[@sanpol4399]

Wow. Will be so nice to see the planets , comets and other objects moving in time lapse.

[@phil1963100]

Fascinating and wonderful video. Thanks very much!

[@santosl.harper4471]

Great, we can map the precession of the starlink network! Awesome

[@hellcat1988]

Seeing as how I'm in my 30's, and how many of these projects will be completed within my lifetime, it could very well be that I will live to see the telescope that finds whatever rock is out there that, if undiscovered in time to divert, will cause an extinction level event capable of wiping out humanity. What a time to be alive. As great minds throughout time have discovered time and again, all the answers are already out there in the universe, just waiting for someone to ask the right question.

[@jeeppayton]

Ya! Like is the earth round or flat?

[@CodeLeeCarter]

Can't wait to see the final footage.

[@raleighdecorah8153]

Amazing! Our World Community can move our consciousness into profound directions if we collaborate and share. I'm so proud and excited to be able to have the opportunity to share in our new discoveries. Thank you to e everyone that has participated in making this real.

[@TonyMcClure]

This is going to be awesome!!! Can’t wait to see it!!

[@ekhmoi4552]

This is just incredible!

[@marendur]

I know the 20th decade of this millenia started tough, but the endeavors scheduled on the space exploration and the science about the mechanics of the universe are so exciting that it will worth passing trought all of this.

[@tylermackinnon9827]

Awesome, this is gonna make way for some groundbreaking discoveries!

[@geethasherigar9117]

I wish my phone had one of those

[@Karthik-jz4nr]

Then your phone would be the size or a house.... unlikely!

[@mypahrizal335]

You already have something even better, your eyes

[@HeroOfTheDay16]

@@mypahrizal335 last time i checked my eyes can't see the majority of stars/galaxies not to mention detail

[@hermanjohnson9180]

Me too

[@arsenalgear3009]

In 200 years you might 😉

[@moryakantha5782]

"Thousands of Petabytes!" OMG Gamers get READY!!!!!

[@doriannamjesnik3007]

Rookie numbers.

[@dawsonmaillet8230]

This is absolutely amazing! I can’t wait to see the images!

[@bas182341]

Such genius scientific progression makes me emotional. Absolutely fascinating!!

[@simulify8726]

GIGAPIXEL? Sounds good for a new google smartphone product.

[@flyroket]

Cool trailer and I can't wait to see the movie in 2030!

[@osmantoplica8912]

2032* :(

[@keriezy]

This is so cool. I am very excited to see what comes from this.

[@dv.singh97]

I was already waiting for JWST for quite a long time and now this. Just can't wait for them now!

[@Yaboikvk]

When can my iPhone get this

[@vitorschroederdosanjos6539]

Who am I to predict that - world class physicist We could all aspire to be more like that

[@bmw3-er]

What a humble guy! Props to them!

[@wbrito8617]

Incredible. I always enjoy Technical upgrades.

[@vineshen3599]

Wow .. when humanity works together and great minds work on solving a problem the technological break throughs and machines that can first be imagined then constructed are amazing. This telescope is an absolute engineering marvel , we have come so far technologically in the past 50yrs, its mind blowing... not to mention the data storage capacities that are required to support such enormous files, this would not have been possible if the cloud storage servers that we take for granted in 2020 did not exist.

[@PeaceManBro]

Why doesnt the news showcase fascinating technology like this instead of violence and negativity all the time?

[@Quell__]

@@PeaceManBro because negative emotions have a greater effect on us humans than positive ones. outrage is stronger than curiosity and fascination, sadly. Imagine where we would be if the USA spends the budget of its military on NASA and space exploration. Almost all our new technologies have its roots in the era of space race in the 60s... What are we benefiting from the military? I can only think of GPS and I am pretty sure that we would have gotten GPS sooner if NASA had such a big budget of 721 billion $ lol

[@bhargavchaudhari9971]

we living in a wonderful era of innovation.

[@Karthik-jz4nr]

How many Gigapixel? My smartphone camera: *0.1mega pixel*

[@pradeepyoi6975]

I have been viewing your videos since the beginning i have to say you guys made me interested in science more than my school and college, keep going guys and keep doing the good work 👌👌👍

[@avejst]

Great update 👍😀 Thanks for sharing 👍😀

[@wo_ah2382]

introducing the iPhone 20

[@moedalgarny]

cia USA army and fbi and: can we have a drive test pleaseee

[@dmeemd7787]

I didn't realize they were this far along on that already, I cannot wait for this thing to come online! Whenever the project is finished after a 10-year run or even just a few years in, the movie so to speak. They're going to make and the amount of things are going to capture from how fast they're taking pictures they're going to catch some amazing things and we're going to see some amazing things! Really really really exciting project! I love that you guys cover the stuff in 10 minutes or more videos. I could sit through 30 minute videos on these, but 10 minutes is good because more people watch it and learn and know about it:-)

[@scidiscovery8707]

This is so awesome! Thank you for your hard work!

[@EpicTime33]

*Chinese cellphone makers in few years :*

[@henlo9690]

*breaks and explodes in 4 seconds*

[@aditeayah]

_But Does it have a phone_

[@SexDrugsNpostprod]

The CGI/VFX in this video are top notch!

[@arealvu497]

When this is done, I would LOVE to see a deep field shot into Bootes Void.

[@nigonkouk1770]

Sounds expensive', you could of fed the earth's starving children's children's children wif dat kina moneys ;[) LoL''''''''''''''

[@_rileyweaver_637]

No... you couldn't...

[@Vysair]

fed em 1g uranium, you got 20billion calories on that

[@nigonkouk1770]

@@Marv0712 lol, I was just saying' 😉

[@Johansen1000]

The price was not even half a billion, America alone spend 1600 times that much money on War every single year, imagine if that money was spent on actual science to better mankind.

[@djayjp]

Can we just take a moment to appreciate the awesome CGI, and the artists behind it, that enable us to perceive the universe like we never would've been able to.

[@larrypeteet5575]

FANTASTIC!! Thanks for sharing this

[@alenharris1794]

Man JWST in 2021 & VRCO in 2022, what a time to be alive!

[@pradeepyoi6975]

Outstanding i think this is one of brilliant projects after apollo and Voyager, truly an excellent initiative

[@yetanotherjohn]

I'm glad Vera Rubin has an observatory named after her, I wonder when Halton Arp will.

[@MrPorkchop7200]

This large amount of data about the night sky is quite an exciting thing to have available for everyone

[@SethMethCS]

I want to see 20 of these, all working in sync with each other.

[@thibautsamson9404]

Very intersesting, it reminds me of the Ligo observatories for gravitational waves, your experiment is huge, I'm looking forward to see thos images and understand more about ourselves, as humans.

[@edinsajche2487]

It is a beautiful time to be alive. Answers to questions about space.

[@thesmallcheval]

This is fun to look forward to!

[@AwesomeCrackDealer]

so exciting! My respect goes for these scientists that are helping us answer the hard questions!

[@madmike2881]

Man, that is going to be amazing. I hope the analysis can be integrated into a distributed computing service for BOINC for citizens to help with the data crunching. Can't wait to get access to the dataset!

[@coolstory92]

I’ll give this one a favorite. Future reference video

[@jahwin]

Can't wait to have this camera on my phone

[@Pyriphlegeton]

I love how the fruits of these achievements are just shared freely in the scientific community.

[@Pyriphlegeton]

Like "here, this is two decades of work, perhaps you can use it."

[@IAmLaegion]

The photographer in me would be like a kid in a candy store at the helm of this. 💛

[@pendyalaashwanth]

Great video , could you please let me know how did you create the effects for this video :) like the visual videos and the effects within it etc.

[@paroxysm4101]

Your digital art is amazing! Kudos to your team

[@FractalNoize]

spectacular info and even more impressive fooatges.

[@JanKopanski]

Physics Girl has fantastic look behind the scenes at them working on the glass lens.

[@Tavnott]

"You can only afford to understand them as a whole humanity"... I like that....

[@Mrdresden]

These cross collaboration science mega projects (ITER, Copernicus, GMT) are what keep my cynisim about the state of the world at bay. This ability to come together and focus our energy and attention to discovery more about the world for the benefit of all humankind is simply beautiful.

[@TeamLegacyFTW]

Another great video, thanks.👊

[@JACKSPARROW-wp7pb]

Thank you humanity. Humans are so great much respect to the people creating things to make life easier and scientific studies

[@arnabkarmakar0000]

absolutely astounding

[@abhishekpratap05]

I am too excited to view those stunning images, I love to gaze 🌟 .

[@socrates_the_great6209]

Wow....what a kickass high tech facility....stunning technology and work.

[@clownkpopstan9798]

Can't wait for it!!!!!

[@crazywilly85]

Oh man, this is gonna be some exciting years to come. This one, James Webb space telescope and Vera Rubin telescope!

[@entropymaster2012]

Can´t wait to see the universe in motion... !