World's largest digital camera is ready to click at 3,200 megapixels
World's largest digital camera is ready to click at 3,200 megapixels
17 Jun, 2025
Credit: Rubin Observatory
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile is home to the world's largest digital camera, designed to photograph the entire visible sky every few nights using its powerful 8.4-meter Simonyi Survey Telescope.
The observatory's LSST Camera weighs about 3,000 kg (6,600 lbs), is the size of a small car, and features a 3,200-megapixel sensor—equal to the resolution of 260 modern smartphones.
The camera's imaging power is so immense that a single photo would require hundreds of ultra-high-definition TV screens to display in full detail.
The camera's sensors are kept at -100°C to ensure image clarity, and it can switch between six giant color filters (u, g, r, i, z, y) in under two minutes, allowing scientists to study the universe in multiple wavelengths.
Over ten years, the observatory will create a time-lapse 'movie' of the night sky, helping astronomers study billions of galaxies, asteroids, and cosmic events, and unravel mysteries like dark matter and dark energy.
Built at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California and shipped to Chile in 2024, the camera is scheduled for installation in early 2025, with its first images set to be released on June 23, 2025
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