World's largest digital camera about to release first photos
The first photos from the largest digital camera in the world are about to be revealed and we are expecting some out-of-this-world shots.The Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) camera was built to capture ground-breaking photos of space.Next week - on Monday, 23 June - some of these observations will be revealed to the world for the first time.
According to the Guinness Book of Records the LSST is not only the largest digital camera, but also the one with the highest resolution which means it can take really detailed photos.Some top-of-the-range phones have cameras with a resolution of up to 50 megapixels, whereas the LSST has a resolution of 3,200 megapixels!But you definitely can't carry this camera around with you, it's about the same size as a small car and weighs a massive 2,800kg.Instead it is kept at the Vera C Rubin Observatory in Chile attached to a powerful telescope.The images it will take are so large that it would take 400 ultra-high-definition televisions to display one of them at full size.
The camera aims to capture 1,000 images a night over the next 10 years and the project's mission is to catalogue 20 billion galaxies.The goal is to capture an ultra-wide and ultra-high-definition time-lapse record of our Universe.The US National Science Foundation and Department of Energy say the images captured will help scientists answer questions about dark matter, the structure of the Milky Way and the formation of our Solar System."No other telescope has been able to detect both real-time changes in the sky and faint or distant objects at the same time on this enormous scale. "These capabilities mean that exceedingly rare events in the sky, never detected before, will be captured for the first time."The first spectacular images are to be unveiled on 23 June at 11am in the US, which is 4pm in the UK.The 'First Look' event is set to be live-streamed on YouTube for any astronomy enthusiasts.
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Professor Tipton says: 'With the evidence that 32-degree days in June are now 100 times more likely, it is undeniable that climate change is now costing British lives.' This comes after a study conducted by the Met Office predicted that summers rivalling the famous 1976 heatwave could become the norm as the climate continues to warm. During that summer, the UK spent a sweltering fortnight above the heatwave threshold of 28°C (82°F). Looking ahead, the Met Office warns that the UK might spend two-thirds of the summer at those temperatures, with continuous heatwaves lasting up to a month. The study warned there is now a 50/50 chance of the UK hitting 40°C again in the next 12 years, with a maximum of 46.6°C (115.9°F) now 'plausible' in today's climate. World Weather Attribution also warns that climate change is increasing the risk of wildfires in the UK. Theodore Keeping, wildfire researcher at Imperial College, says: 'Hotter temperatures mean an exponential increase in the evaporation of moisture from vegetation. 'This leads to much drier conditions, and results in a higher chance of wildfires starting and spreading as leaf litter and grasses become tinder dry.' The UK is already in the midst of a record year for wildfires, smashing the all-time record in the first four months of the year. Tom Lancaster, land, food and farming analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, says: 'We're in the midst of a record-breaking year for wildfires, with exceptionally severe fire risk forecast for this weekend, bringing home the reality of continuing to pump carbon emissions into the atmosphere.' Ahead of this weekend's heatwave, emergency services around the country have issued warnings about the increased risk of fires. According to the Met Office, the fire severity risk is currently 'very high' in many places and 'high' in others. Mr Keeping adds: 'People going outside to enjoy the warm weather should not be using fire or disposable barbecues, dispose of cigarette butts carefully and should immediately notify emergency services if they do notice a fire.
