--- title: "Astronomers Use Huge Space Telescope Camera to Photograph Broccoli" description: "Scientists are building the largest digital camera on Earth meant to observe the night sky. In a test, they took a picture of a head of Romanesco broccoli." date: "2020-09-09" modified: "2020-09-09" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/astronomers-huge-space-telescope-camera-photograph-broccoli" categories: - "Space" tags: - "camera" - "observatory" - "vera rubin" --- # Astronomers Use Huge Space Telescope Camera to Photograph Broccoli ![Scientists are building the largest digital camera on Earth meant to observe the night sky. In a test, they took a picture of a head of Romanesco broccoli.]() *\Image: SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory\* Scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory are hard at work building the world's largest camera, destined for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory telescope in northern Chile. "The whole camera is about 13 feet from the front lens to the back where we have all our support equipment, and the 5 feet in diameter — so, massive," Aaron Roodman, the scientist in charge of assembling and testing the camera, [told *NPR*](). The enormous camera has 189 detectors, which together are able to take 3.2 billion pixel or 3,200 megapixel images. To view just one of them at full resolution, you'd need 378 4K TVs [according to an official statement](). With that kind of cosmic resolution, you'd be able to see a golf ball from about 15 miles away. And to test it, they decided to stick a Romanesco broccoli inside a dark enclosed box, essentially "a metal box with a tiny pinhole at the top of it, and lights inside the box," as Roodman explained to *NPR*. "So kind of the opposite of a pinhole camera." Why broccoli? According to Roodman, it was "mostly for fun," and that "we thought it would look cool, which I think it does." ![]() SLAC's Steven Kahn, the director of the Rubin Observatory, described the significance of the successful test in a bit more formal way. "This achievement is among the most significant of the entire Rubin Observatory Project," he said in the statement. "The completion of the LSST Camera focal plane and its successful tests is a huge victory by the camera team that will enable Rubin Observatory to deliver next-generation astronomical science," he added. https://youtu.be/Tb7nfJrNnKQ Scientists are hoping to install the unwieldy camera to the Rubin Observatory telescope by the fall of 2022, but it will be ready for testing by mid 2021. Rather than being used to take pictures of broccoli, the camera will be used to take wide field astronomical surveys of almost the entire night sky every few nights, in six different broad optical bands. **READ MORE:** [California Scientists Build A Camera To Take Pictures Of Huge Swath Of Sky]() \[*NPR*\] **More on the observatory:** *[Researchers Find Captivating New Details In Image of Black Hole]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()