The most advanced camera on Earth will monitor asteroids

The first of four planned to release telescopes that monitor asteroids and space objects will be installed in a research astronomical station in Hawaii this month. The main purpose: a quick scan of large areas of the sky, in which scientists will help the world's largest digital camera.

The project, called “Pan-STARRS” (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System), aims to install four identical telescopes to observe objects in Earth orbit and are up to 300 meters in diameter that could potentially damage our planet. . The observation will be from the American laboratory in Haleakala , Maui Island, Hawaii.

The heart of the telescope is a 1.4 gigapixel camera based on a 64x64 CCD array, each of which has 600x600 pixels. This innovative invention was created at the Lincoln legendary laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The composite digital camera was made not only because of its cheapness (compared to creating a single matrix) - each of the individual CCD units can process images on the fly depending on weather conditions, providing clear astrophotographs at the output.
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Pan-Starrs via Technologyreview