[ti:World's Largest Camera for Astronomy Reaches Chilean Mountaintop]
[al:Science & Technology]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2024-06-10]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]The largest digital camera ever built for space scientists is ready to be put in place under the clear skies of northern Chile.
[00:14.08]The camera can produce images above 3.2 gigapixels in size and weighs nearly three tons.
[00:26.33]A pixel is the smallest area of detail in a digital image.
[00:33.12]The camera is one of the main pieces required of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.
[00:42.23]The pieces include a telescope with a mirror that is 8.4 meters across and the huge camera.
[00:51.36]The observatory is expected to start full science operations in 2025.
[00:59.53]The observatory is on the top of a mountain called Cerro Pachón in the Coquimbo area of Chile. 
[01:09.89]It is on the edge of the Atacama Desert 565 kilometers north of Chile's capital Santiago.
[01:20.71]Chile has many of the largest research telescopes in the southern half of the world because of the clear skies above the Atacama Desert, one of Earth's driest places.
[01:34.83]Stuartt Corder is chief science officer for AURA, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy. 
[01:45.62]He is also a director of the NOIRLab center, which will operate the telescope.
[01:53.08]He said, "Everything that we needed for operations [is] now on the summit and ready for checkout and hopefully for installation a little bit later this year."
[02:06.18]AURA is a group of 49 U.S. institutions and three international ones.
[02:12.39]AURA helps operate the astronomical observatories for the National Science Foundation and the U.S. space agency, NASA.
[02:24.33]It is responsible for operating the NOIRLab center.
[02:29.46]The camera will produce around 20 terabytes of data each night.
[02:34.51]It will take pictures of the sky for 10 years producing a huge database of information about all parts of the sky that can be seen from Chile.
[02:46.62]Corder said one of the goals of the exploration will be to understand the nature of dark energy and dark matter in the universe. 
[02:57.51]Scientists say these are forms of energy and matter that exist in theory but have not been observed.
[03:06.20]Corder said they are "names we give to things because we don't really know what they are."
[03:12.70]Another goal will be to search for and study asteroids that threaten to strike the Earth or to look for nearby stars and planets.
[03:24.35]Corder said the arrival of the camera was "...a really inspiring moment where you can say - we're starting."
[03:33.03]And he added, "We're standing here at the precipice, getting ready to start a campaign that in ten years, we hope will answer the questions of...when the universe was made and started into motion...and how will it continue to evolve in the future?"
[03:53.15]The results may be similar to what we already know, Corder said, but they will help refine our understanding the universe.
[04:03.05]I'm Ashley Thompson.